lo tile 
Fa, ilic V Mexico 



fj" 



A.K.McClure 



Class 




Mk.M iS 

CopyiightN®____ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



TO THE PACIFIC & MEXICO 



To the 
Pacific &^ Mexico 



BY 



A. K. McCLURE, LL.D. 



ILLUSTRATED 




Philadelphia & London 

J. B. Lippincott Company 

I 9 o I 



I Bki-:\ 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Received 

MAY. 27 1901 

Copyright entry 

CLASS O^XXC. N». 

COPY 3. 



Copyright, 1901 

BY 

J. B. LippiNCOTT Company 






PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA, U.8.A. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



A. K. McClure .... Frontispiece 

The Mormon Tabernacle . 

The Golden Gate, San Francisco 

The Great Cathedral, City of Mexico 

Chapultepec — Hall of the Montezumas 

The Guadalupe Cathedral . 

Railroad ascending Orizaba Mountains 



24 
43 
63 
94 
113 
147 



PREFACE 

These letters are given to tlie public 
without any special claim to literary merit, 
as they were written for the Philadelphia 
Times amidst the exactions of a journey 
across the continent to the Pacific and 
thence to the City of Mexico, with but 
little time for careful preparation. 

A party, consisting of Hon. William H. 
Armstrong of Philadelphia, Charles I. 
DuPont of Delaware, H. L. Holden, Jr., 
of Easton, Maryland, Mrs. Hannah E. Por- 
ter and Miss Annette A. Porter of Wil- 
mington, and Miss Katharine H. Spencer 
and Miss Clifford Newbold of Philadel- 
phia, made the journey with the author 
across the continent to San Francisco, 
thence by El Paso to the City of Mexico, 
thence home by Eagle Pass, San Antonio, 
and New Orleans. 



PREFACE 



The interesting scenery of our Western 

mountains and on the Pacific, and the 

vastly more interesting historical lessons 

in Mexico, inspired the author to present 

in these letters the convictions which the 

impressive studies make for the observant 

traveller. They are given without revision, 

thus presenting to the public the varied 

impressions made at different stages of a 

hasty journey of nearly ten thousand 

miles. 

A. K. M. 

Philadelphia, April, 1901. 



TO THE 
PACIFIC &f MEXICO 

¥ 

THE MORMONS REVISITED 

¥ 
Salt Lake City, Utah, January 22, 1901. 
Every intelligent and public-spirited 
citizen of the United States should traverse 
his country at least once in every decade, 
or he must fall behind complete knowledge 
and just appreciation of the grandeur and 
growth of the republic. I first saw the far 
West thirty-four years ago, when Denver 
was little more than a rude mining-camp 
with hardly a comfortable home-building 
within it. Now it is a great city with 
many squares of elegant and substantial 
buildings. It was then a straggling village 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

of hastily constructed shanties, and no one 
dreamed that when half a generation had 
passed it would be the centre of numerous 
railroads, with colleges and churches, the 
pride of an intelligent, prosperous, and 
most progressive people. 

I remember Governor Evans and Dr. 
Cass driving me around the suburbs of the 
shanties which they called the city, and 
pointing out to me a very desirable quarter- 
section of land that I should take up at 
government prices. I declined the venture, 
as I was not in a speculative mood, and 
the new country seemed to promise little 
more than gratification to those who loved 
adventure ; but when I was in the same 
city twenty years later. Dr. Cass drove me 
through the streets of the same quarter- 
section, pointed out the beautiful Capitol 
building erected upon it, and took special 
pride in informing me that the entire 

10 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

quarter-section was then worth five thou- 
sand dollars or more per acre. 

I well remember that the one thing that 
seemed to concern the people of Colorado 
and Utah a generation ago was the fact 
that there was not a known coal-mine be- 
tween Missouri and the Pacific Ocean. 
The Union Pacific Railroad had then ex- 
tended only about two hundred miles west 
from Missouri to the North Platte, and its 
coming to the Rocky Mountain region was 
looked for with intense interest, but there 
was not a pound of coal on its entire 
line to make steam for its locomotives. 
Now Colorado alone could supply the 
whole of the United States with coal and 
have plenty to spare, — not only bituminous 
or soft coal, but anthracite coal, although 
the anthracite coal is not equal in quality 
to that of Pennsylvania. Colorado people 

say it is not as ripe, but it is genuine 
11 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

anthracite, and it is shipped eastward hun- 
dreds of miles to take the place of the 
Schuylkill and Lehigh coal that has always 
been used in small quantities for particular 
purposes. There was pointed out to me, 
by a very intelligent business man, as we 
were passing through Colorado, a single 
spur of one of the many broken ridges of 
the Rockies that alone has in it billions of 
tons of coal, and which is quite accessible. 
It was then thought next to impossible 
to make a transcontinental railroad ever 
pay, and the very liberal subsidy given by 
the government to the Union Pacific and 
to the Central Pacific was generally con- 
sidered by all as a gift, as it never could 
be repaid. To-day there are five different 
railroads traversing the Eocky Mountains 
from the eastern base to the Pacific. They 
are the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, 
Union Pacific, Sante Fe line, and Southern 

12 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

Pacific, and all are to-day on a reasonably- 
sound basis, after the government has been 
practically repaid its investment in these 
great enterprises. 

Upon Denver, transformed in a single 
score of years from a rude mining-camp 
into a great city with every quality of 
substance, I looked yesterday for the first 
time in twelve years, and I found it out- 
stripping all Eastern cities, and to be one 
of the most beautiful and heartsome cities 
of the continent. It has a great State 
around it, and its wealth is not only 
steadily increasing, but the momentum of 
advancement increases with every year. 
It was only a few years ago that its people 
believed that its wealth was in silver, and 
that the production of gold was a mere 
secondary interest. Like all people who 
have been pioneers in building up great 
States, they believed only in Colorado, and 

13 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

thought or cared for little else. They 
voted next to unanimously for free silver 
against an overwhelming Eepublican con- 
viction four years ago, but in the mean 
time the product of gold has outstripped 
that of silver, and the many other great 
interests of the State have overshadowed 
the silver issue, making the State fairly 
debatable in the last contest and leaving 
the silver battle only a memory. 

Not only do two trunk-lines cross the 
Rockies and traverse the State, but the 
little narrow-gauge railroad climbs the 
steep cliffs around the sharp curves of 
the confused mountain spurs into every 
centre of industry, and to-day no one can 
fairly measure the future wealth of Colo- 
rado. Since I last visited the State, only 
a dozen years ago, oil has been discovered 
and there has been built up an immense 
industry around Florence, from which you 

14 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

can see a forest of oil-derricks and e very- 
sign of commerce in oil. In the rich little 
valleys which lie between the mountain 
spurs prosperous communities are growing 
up. The only sign of the old Mexican 
that is to be seen in the State is in Pueblo, 
where the slums are peopled by those who 
have come down from Spanish and Mexi- 
can rule and who learn nothing and forget 
nothing. They live in extreme poverty in 
little adobe huts, and are clustered together 
chiefly on one of the suburban hills lying 
about the city. 

The imperial progress of America that I 
saw so beautifully and impressively referred 
to by the leading journal of Austria only 
a few days ago, has stamped its impress 
so clearly upon the Western part of our 
continent that it becomes bewildering to 
attempt to measure the future achievements 
of our people. 

15 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

I doubt whether there is anywhere in 
any other country of the world a journey 
so grandly beautiful as that of crossing the 
Rocky Mountains by the Grand Canon on 
the Santa Fe E-ailroad. From Pueblo un- 
til the summit of the mountain is reached 
the railroad follows the Arkansas Biver, 
which has hewn its way through the con- 
fusion of rocky cliffs to reach an outlet 
to the Eastern sea, and in the Grand 
Canon it has worked out its channel, in 
some places leaving almost perpendicular 
cliffs hundreds of feet in height on every 
side, and in one place an almost perpen- 
dicular wall towering eighteen hundred 
feet above the angry stream that rushes 
through the canon. From Cafion City to 
Salida, which is a two hours' journey, 
the scenery is the most wild and weird 
that I ever have witnessed. For miles 
at a time, although early in the after- 

16 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

noon, the only perceptible knowledge of 
the shining of the sun was given as here 
and there you could see from the bottom of 
the canon the sunlight kissing the tops of 
the distant cliffs. The grade is very heavy, 
making the ascent slow, and hard by the 
road-bed the dashing and whirling waters 
of the little river descend without a placid 
pool from its fountain, on the summit of 
the range, until it strikes the plain west 
of Pueblo. We reach the altitude of ten 
thousand two hundred and forty feet, but, 
strange as it may seem, there are enclosed 
and cultivated ranches almost to the very 
summit of the mountain, while below the 
canon, at an elevation of from six thousand 
to seven thousand feet, most luxuriant 
orchards are to be seen on every side, 
and although in midwinter, cattle and 
horses were grazing from the base to the 
summit of the rocky range. What must 

2 17 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

be the future growth and wealth of such 
a country? 

This morning found us again in the 
land of the Saints, the beautiful valley of 
Utah. When I first saw it, thirty-four 
years ago, the Mormon Church and its 
power were absolutely supreme within its 
entire borders. It was governed by Brig- 
ham Young, with whom I had frequent 
intercourse and was much entertained as 
well as instructed by his frank presenta- 
tion of the industrial organization of the 
Mormon hierarchy. The Mormons settled 
here because they had been driven from 
Pennsylvania to Ohio, and from Ohio to 
Illinois, where their temple was destroyed 
by a mob and Prophet Smith murdered. 
They then crossed the trackless plains west 
of the Missouri, and traversed the five 
hundred miles of roadless mountains, 
bringing with them their stock, their im- 

18 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

plements, and all things necessary to found 
a new community, as they believed, entirely 
beyond the reach of the civilization that 
had antagonized them. They settled in 
Utah after having thoroughly prospected 
the mountain regions, not only because it 
was regarded as one of the most fruitful 
valleys of the continent, but because it was 
under the government of Mexico that was- 
certain never to disturb them; but only 
two years 'after they had first reared their 
homes here the treaty of Guadalupe Hi- 
dalgo brought them back within the hated 
jurisdiction of the United States. They 
were, however, more than a thousand miles 
beyond the outer verge of civilization, 
with impassable mountains and hostile 
savages to retard advancement of empire 
towards the setting sun. Between them 
and the Missouri were only unpeopled 
plains, once described in our old geogra- 

19 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

phies as the "Great American Desert," 
and mountains extending over hundreds 
of miles regarded as impassable except to 
the hardiest of adventurers. West of them 
were the even more forbidding cliffs of the 
Sierra Nevadas, peopled to the Pacific slope 
by semi-barbarians. It was not unreason- 
able for Brigham Young, one of the shrewd- 
est and ablest administrators of his time, 
and thorough master of the people who 
were under his rule because he thoroughly- 
understood them, to assume that the Mor- 
mon people were entirely safe for genera- 
tions against the surges of the civilization 
they so much dreaded. They saw their 
beautiful and bountiful valley walled in 
by great mountain cliffs, with their eternal 
caps of snow, and with nothing, as they 
believed, to invite the incursions of their 
foes. 

I studied the Mormon problem in this 

20 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

city in 1867 for some weeks, and had very 
free and hospitable intercourse with the 
leaders of the Mormon faith. Aside from 
the religious teachings of the church, it 
was certainly the most complete and benefi- 
cent industrial organization that has ever 
been made in this or any other country. 
Brigham Young was hard to answer when 
he challenged me to traverse his entire 
community, extending for one hundred 
miles north and south, and find a single 
man begging bread or a woman in open 
shame. The church not only provided for 
the spiritual needs of the people according 
to its own faith and maintained polygamy 
as a religious duty, but it made the most 
complete provision for all of their temporal 
wants. If bad seasons destroyed the crops, 
the storehouse of the church fed those who 
werebreadless; if sickness came, the bishop 
ministered to them ; and when death came, 

21 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

the last offices were performed for all by 
the church, and the widowed and fatherless 
cared for. It was even then a completely in- 
dependent community. It produced every- 
thing its people consumed, and the products 
of the entire Territory were regulated by 
orders from the church. When there was 
an excess of products, there being no out- 
side market, the church became the pur- 
chaser, thus assuring a certain reward to 
the husbandman. Education and music 
were held to be religious duties in every 
home. Dances were held weekly in every 
settlement under the care of the bishop, 
and a large theatre had been erected in the 
city and gave all the attractive plays which 
traversed the continent. They even made 
their own money, issuing their bank-notes 
in utter contempt of the national banking 
law, and in conviction they were generally 
hostile to the government. 

22 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

Finally the sound of the iron horse was 
heard in the canons and around the cliffs 
of the Kockies, and that brought civiliza- 
tion suddenly in conflict with Mormonism. 
The first railway train that entered Salt 
Lake City from the East dated the decline 
and fall of Mormon supremacy and Mormon 
religion so far as it was in conflict with the 
laws of the nation, and any other man than 
Brigham Young would have been over- 
whelmed at the threshold of the struggle. 
It was his cunning and masterful diplomacy 
that saved the power of the Mormon Church 
from early destruction, but he finally gave 
up the unequal battle and found repose 
in death. The dying throes of polygamy 
and Mormon power in Utah need not now 
be detailed, they are familiar to all; but 
no one can look over this beautiful and 
fruitful valley without feeling that the 
Mormons, the earliest of all the pioneers in 

23 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

the mountain valleys, laid the foundation 
for a State that must one day be accepted 
as among the most attractive and prosperous 
of any of the States of the Union. 

The Mormons are still a large majority 
of the people in Utah and the possessors 
of most of its wealth, but they have become 
so intermingled with the civilization of the 
East in commerce, industry, finance, and 
trade that you see no sign of distinctive 
Mormonism in the community. Their 
beautiful and unique Temple, that required 
forty years to build, and the immense 
turtle-roofed Tabernacle with the Assembly 
Hall are in one block and are maintained 
in all their beauty. The Mormon altar 
has its crowds of worshippers in the public 
services accessible to all, but the Temple is 
inexorably closed against the tread of the 
Gentile. When I was here twelve years 
ago it had not yet been completed or dedi- 

24 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

cated, and I was permitted to enter some 
of the unimportant rooms in it, but to-day- 
all the influence that any person could 
command would not secure the admission 
of an unbeliever within its sacred portals. 

I had a very delightful illustration of 
the vitality and advancement of the Mor- 
mons this afternoon. When our party 
arrived here we were met with an invi- 
tation to visit the Tabernacle, where a 
special organ recital would be given for us. 
It was gladly accepted, of course, for I was 
anxious to see the progress the church had 
made in one of the most refining agents of 
humanity. Kegular recitals are given for 
an hour every Wednesday and Saturday, 
and the public cordially invited to attend, 
but the special recital of this afternoon was 
not made known to the public, and when 
our party entered the immense Tabernacle 
we were given seats in the gallery at the 

25 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

end of the vast amphitheatre farthest from 
the organ. It was rather a grotesque spec- 
tacle for a party of half a score to be in 
the great auditorium that seats ten thou- 
sand people, and listen to an organ recital 
during the entire hour, when there were not 
a dozen others who dropped in. We were 
treated to the most exquisite organ music I 
have ever heard. It has been the pride of 
the Mormon Church to furnish the best 
music to the people. When I was here a 
generation ago, the small Tabernacle was 
in use; it seated three thousand peo- 
ple, and its organ had been built entirely 
by the Mormons, but they were then en- 
gaged in building the new Tabernacle and 
organ, and after ten years of labor both 
were completed. The organ was then the 
largest ever made, and is now exceeded in 
size by but very few; but they are just 
about to engage in the work of increasing 

26 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

its size and capacity, and when that shall 
have been completed, they will justly claim 
that they have the largest organ in the 
world, built entirely by their Mormon 
artisans, and wholly made from home 
materials. 

The organist is certainly one of the most 
accomplished in his line in any country. I 
have many times enjoyed music of church 
organs, but I have never heard that of the 
Tabernacle approached in any of the im- 
portant attributes of exquisite music. One 
feature of this organ that has been brought 
to perfection is the use of the human-voice 
pipes, and it is almost impossible to dis- 
tinguish such a recital from the music of a 
first-class church organ with an elegant 
choir. After the recital I had the pleas- 
ure of meeting the organist, Professor Mc- 
Clellan, who exhibited all the different 
qualities of his great organ to the party, 

27 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

and I was specially gratified to meet Mr. 
Ridges, who personally constructed both of 
the Mormon organs. He told me that this 
great organ had been built entirely by car- 
penters under his immediate direction, not 
one of whom had ever worked upon musi- 
cal instruments before. This superb music 
is given without charge in semi-weekly 
recitals for the benefit of all who shall 
come to enjoy it, and the regular Mor- 
mon worship in the Tabernacle is also 
free to all visitors, where the organ may be 
heard accompanied by a choir of five hun- 
dred cultivated singers. It would be im- 
possible that such cultivation of one of the 
most refining of human enjoyments should 
not make its impress in general refinement 
upon the Mormon people. 

Outside of the old square that holds 
the Temple, Tabernacle, and Assembly 
Hall, Salt Lake City to-day is simply a 

28 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

thriving, progressive, and prosperous city, 
with private homes which would adorn 
Chestnut Street, and banking edifices 
which would be creditable in Philadelphia 
financial circles. Great industries have 
grown up, not only in and around the city, 
but throughout the State, and there is 
hardly a necessity of the people of Utah 
that is not supplied within her own border. 
Such is the matchless progress of a single 
generation in our Rocky Mountain region, 
and what were then regarded as inhospit- 
able wildernesses, have now been grandly 
rounded out by the patient labors and sac- 
rifices of the American pioneer, until we 
have an unbroken galaxy of sovereign 
States from the Eastern to the Western 
sea. 



29 



ACROSS THE SIERRAS TO SAN 
FRANCISCO 

San Francisco, January 26, 1901. 

Any person who desires to get a lesson 
of the wonderful progress and boundless 
resources of this great country should 
take a journey across the continent. Such 
a tour should not be made hastily ; but 
even if the tourist has not time to tarry 
at every point of interest, it is well worth 
the making. There is no more interesting 
trip, taking in the views only from the 
car-windows, than that across the Rocky 
Mountains and the Sierras to the Golden 
Gate, which is the entrance to the finest 
and largest harbor on the Pacific coast. 

There is but little change in the moun- 
tain scenery after leaving Salt Lake until 
you enter into the Sierras, which are not 

30 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

reached for some hundreds of miles west 
of Ogden. On that part of the journey 
you traverse what is commonly known as 
the desert west of Salt Lake, and it does 
seem to be the most inhospitable region that 
you could find in any country. But even 
that part of our vast and confused ranges 
of mountains is not wholly unproductive. 
The grass, although apparently entirely 
parched and without the semblance of nu- 
trition, will maintain herds of cattle any- 
where within reach of water, and what 
seems to give no promise of life whatever, 
is utilized along the few streams where 
stock can quench their thirst. Here and 
there, but many miles apart, there are 
slight evidences in a rude way of business 
enterprise, but it is obvious that this whole 
region of mountains can never be made 
generally productive. Wherever there is 
soil in any of our Western mountains that 

31 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

can be reached by irrigation, it always well 
repays the husbandman ; but until some 
vast system of impounding the waters of 
the mountains shall have been adopted, 
there must be millions of acres where seed- 
time and harvest will be unknown. There 
is no part of the mountain region where 
alkali whitens a soil of any depth that the 
most bountiful harvest cannot be grown if 
the land can be irrigated. 

In traversing more than a thousand miles 
of wildly confused mountain cliffs, most of 
them utterly barren, relieved only by the 
eternal caps of snow which whiten the high- 
est of them, there must be much of sameness 
in the general views presented, but to the 
intelligent tourist there are new features to 
be seen in almost every section of this 
mountain region. It is most interesting to 
watch the many beautiful and fantastic 
illusions which crowd upon the observant 

32 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

tourist. In traversing the mountains be- 
tween Salt Lake and the Sierras, when 
the sun was just setting and beaming its 
effulgence only on the highest cliffs behind 
us, I watched for some time what I sup- 
posed to be a pretty lake of fresh water. 
But after waiting a long time for the train 
to get up to it and pass it, I discovered that 
it was no nearer to us than it appeared to 
be when five miles farther from it. I at 
once began an investigation, and found 
that there was not a lake or any stream of 
water within one hundred miles of us, and 
that what I supposed to be a lake of pure 
water was simply the God of Day in the 
evening twilight, throwing his mellowed 
lustre back upon the snow-capped cliff of 
the mountains. 

The most notable observation of the 
Eastern tourist in this part of the moun- 
tains is the entire absence of anything that 

3 33 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

is green except here and there the stunted 
and scraggy bushes ; but when the Sierras 
are reached an entirely different growth 
prevails, and though the altitude is much 
higher than that reached in the mountains 
between the Sierras and Salt Lake, the 
evergreen pines, wearing the richest ver- 
dure, are all in most shapely beauty, large 
and small. In the Rocky Mountains there 
is no growth of timber excepting on the 
northern side of the cliffs, where there is 
soil enough for the trees and the snow es- 
capes melting long enough to give moisture 
during the summer season. In all south- 
ern exposures the bronzed cheeks of the 
mountains are whiskered only with pines 
which never reach the dignity of trees, and 
each one seems to have chosen a home of 
solitude apart from its fellows. 

The Sierra Nevadas were a most inter- 
esting study to me, much as I have been 

34 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

among the Kocky Mountains eastward. 
You enter them a little east of Truekee, 
where we breakfasted at a temperature of 
eight degrees below zero, and thence on to 
Colfax on the western slope there is most 
magnificent mountain scenery, relieved on 
every hand by the deep-green verdure of 
the pines, which grow in exquisite sym- 
metry. The climatic conditions are cer- 
tainly materially different in the Sierras 
and the Bocky Mountains. The strange 
optical illusions which confuse the Eastern 
traveller in the Bockies are not continued 
in the Sierras. I judge that the explanation 
is that there is some degree of humidity in 
the atmosphere of the mountains which 
wall the Pacific slope. As a monument to 
American engineering the Central Pacific 
Railroad, now known as the " Southern 
Pacific," far surpasses the Union Pacific 
Railroad from Ogden to Cheyenne, and 

35 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

certainly equals the engineering achieve- 
ments of the Sante Fe Kailroad, which 
traverses the Grand Canon of the Arkansas 
Biver between Pueblo and the summit of 
the Rocky range. Away up, thousands 
of feet above the Horseshoe Bend of the 
Pennsylvania Pailroad, that famous work 
has its copy in a like Horseshoe Bend in the 
Sierras, which presents vastly greater engi- 
neering achievements than are exhibited in 
our Alleghanies, and in the whole journey 
from the summit of the Sierras down to 
the green fields which skirt the foot-hills 
of the mountains in California there is a 
continuously changing magnificence in the 
views which are presented on every side. 

It was a great relief to get away from 
the countless and confused mountain cliffs 
of the East, on which not a single blade of 
grass could be seen, and enjoy the heart- 
some verdure that was always visible in 

36 • 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

every direction in the great Sierras. We 
breakfasted, as I have said, at a temperature 
of eight degrees below zero, and lunched 
five hours later in the midst of the 
most beautiful green fields and blossoming 
flowers, such as you could find anywhere 
around Philadelphia in May-time. The 
foot-hills of the mountains in California are 
studded with orchards, evidently planted 
and managed with the greatest care, and the 
winter wheat-fields, which extend on every 
side as far as the eye can see, tell the story 
of advanced spring-time that is hastening 
to the threshold of harvest. One of the 
first great fruit regions that we meet after 
leaving the mountains is largely owned 
and entirely controlled by the Armour 
interests in Chicago. In the East we 
know of the great Armour only as the 
" Cattle King,'' but here his hand is laid 
as broadly and his grip as firmly on the 

37 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

fruit-trade of California. The picture of 
these undulating foot-hills is green with the 
promise of future plenty, showing the pros- 
perity of the fruit farmers in one of the 
most beautiful home pictures I have ever 
seen ; and looking westward over the vast, 
level wheat-belt that extends from the foot 
of the mountains to the Pacific the whole 
country seems to be one broad expanse of 
promising and boundless harvest. 

The men who constructed this great 
artery of trade across the Sierra Nevadas 
have all passed away, and California has 
done them little justice. The names of 
Huntington, Stanford, Crocker, and Hop- 
kins will be immortalized when the history 
of Western progress comes to tell the story 
of the greatest achievements of Western 
men. These four men, possessing but a 
moderate capital, had the courage to un- 
dertake the construction of the Central 

38 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

Pacific Railroad from San Francisco to the 
Salt Lake Valley. They were regarded 
by most of their friends as wild enthu- 
siasts in an enterprise that could bring 
them only bankruptcy and disaster. It 
should be remembered that the construction 
of the Union Pacific from the Missouri 
River to Salt Lake was not so difficult an 
undertaking, as all the supplies, including 
iron and machinery, could be brought to 
them direct from the Eastern centres of 
trade; but the men who built the iron 
highway of the Sierra Nevadas had to 
ship eyery pound of iron and every piece 
of machinery from the East around Cape 
Horn to California. After struggling with 
threatened bankruptcy for several years 
they finally achieved the grand success of 
completing their enterprise, and it brought 
them large fortunes, as they well deserved ; 
but they were human, as are most men who 

39 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

happen to seize great opportunities, and 
soon after the completion of the railway- 
came war between a large portion of the 
people and the railroad magnates that has 
continued even until this day, although 
the great creators of the railway have 
passed to their final account. They sought 
to make the road as profitable as possible, 
as they were without competition, and 
doubtless made harsh exactions upon its 
travel and trafiic, but these men, discounted 
by all their infirmities and all the real or 
imaginary wrongs which have - provoked 
revolutionary action at times among the 
people, should be remembered gratefully 
as the only men of that day who had the 
courage, the energy, and the indomitable 
will to begin and complete the construction 
of the railway over the Sierras. Had 
they done as much for England, they 
would have died peers of the realm. 

40 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

I had a most entertaining and instruc- 
tive visit to this city, and I know of no 
place on the continent that the intelli- 
gent and progressive citizens of Philadel- 
phia could visit with more profit. Here is 
a city that only fifty years ago was a rude 
mining-camp, surrounded by a straggling 
and semi-barbarous civilization, and to-day 
it exhibits more broad-gauged citizenship, 
more municipal pride, more generous sup- 
port from all classes of citizens than any 
other city in the Union. With a popula- 
tion of one million less than Philadelphia, 
it has countless monuments of cultivated, 
patriotic, sentimental, and poetic illustra- 
tion. 

Its park is a dream of beauty, and yet 
wholly created from the naked sand-hills 
of the coast. The sand valleys and gentle 
undulations, once entirely guiltless of verd- 
ure, have been reclaimed, and from end to 

41 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

end it is green with trees, shrubs, and 
vines, beautiful and fragrant with flowers ; 
and there is no class of good citizenship in 
the city, high or low, that has not its 
special attractions. Here every Sunday 
tens of thousands of people ride and walk 
through the park : the children with their 
parents to the beautiful playgrounds, the 
athletes to the magnificent fields for base- 
and foot-ball, and lovers of music are at- 
tracted by a colossal pillared music-stand 
erected by Glaus Spreckels that would 
have been worthy of Rome in the zenith 
of the empire. There the patriotic can 
study one of the most beautiful of the 
many statues which adorn the city, repre- 
senting in heroic size the author of " The 
Star-Spangled Banner," and one of the 
prominent features is an immense cross 
erected on one of the little hills of the 
park by the late George W. Childs to com- 

42 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

memorate the first Episcopal services on 
the coast. 

At the end of the park is the Cliff House, 
whose porches overhang the surging waves 
and sad music of the Pacific, and only a 
few feet from the shore are huge rocks 
covered with croaking seals. Roads for 
carriages and bicycles are as superb as 
the most cultivated engineering and liberal 
expenditure can make them, and this part 
tells to every stranger who enters it the 
story of the energy and restless progress 
of the people of the Golden Gate city. 
They are liberal and progressive in every- 
thing that can create new landmarks of 
beneficent achievement, and their hospitality 
is justly claimed as one of the brightest 
jewels of their advancement. 

The mayor of San Francisco is taken 
from its circle of solid business men. It 
has not always been so, but the spot where 

43 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

Dennis Kearney harangued his hoodlums 
on the sand lots only a score of years ago 
is now under the shadow of the magnificent 
city hall, with its tower reaching thirty 
feet above the dome of the Washington 
Capitol. Mayor Phelan has been thrice 
elected to his high office, and he has made 
a most noble record for his yet infant city. 
Here, as elsewhere, there is bitter politi- 
cal strife, and men are arrayed against 
each other on local lines, largely growing 
out of railroad issues which have not yet 
perished ; but the interest and advance- 
ment of San Francisco seem to be thor- 
oughly grounded in the convictions of the 
community as paramount. I leave this 
beautiful and progressive city with the 
highest appreciation of its intelligent and 
patriotic progress, and must ever cherish 
most grateful memories of its welcome to 
the stranger within its gates. 

44 



FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO 
MEXICO 

¥ 
City of Mexico, February 1, 1901. 
With the exception of the green cliffs 
of the Sierras, the beautiful plains of Cali- 
fornia west of the mountains, and the fruit- 
ful valley in which the Mexican capital is 
located, there is a tiresome degree of same- 
ness in the scenery from Salt Lake around 
by San Francisco and down by El Paso 
to this city. You are never out of sight 
of the range of mountains, and with the 
exception of the Sierra Nevadas, all pre- 
sent the same bleak and inhospitable cliffs, 
standing as eternal sentinels on continuous 
plains, usually guiltless of the semblance 
of verdure, although many of them have 
immense flocks of cattle, horses, and sheep 
upon them. 

45 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

The country from San Francisco to El 
Paso, where the tourist diverges into Mexico 
by crossing the Kio Grande, has very much 
of sameness after you get beyond Los An- 
geles. Southern California is certainly 
one of the most heartsome and apparently 
wholesome countries I have ever seen, and 
I found at Los Angeles — the only place 
where I made an extended stay — a number 
of Eastern people who were spending their 
winters there to escape the cold blasts of 
the North. It is located in a beautiful 
section, with many evidences of fruitful- 
ness around it, and its advancement may 
be understood when it is told that it more 
than doubled its population during the last 
decade. Ten years ago the population was 
about fifty thousand ; to-day it is over one 
hundred thousand, and has every sign of 
solid and enduring improvement. While 
spending a day there, we were favored with 

46 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

what they call a " tramp-rain/' which gave 
a delightful shower of several hours, when 
the clouds rolled by and the sun came out, 
with a brightened and refreshed verdure all 
about us. It has perhaps about as equable 
a climate as there is on the continent, and 
while there are many other attractive places 
in Southern California, some of which may 
have advantages over Los Angeles for a 
temporary sojourn, it may now be ac- 
cepted as settled that Los Angeles (" The 
Angels'') seems certain to be the centre of 
attraction to those who wish to see the 
varied beauties and enjoy the agreeable 
climate of Southern California. 

In taking a drive through the city the 
coachman pointed out a bright little cottage 
nestling behind orange-trees heavily laden 
with fruit, and informed me that it was the 
residence of the widow of General John C. 
Fremont. I took the liberty of calling upon 

47 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

her, and was welcomed at the threshold by 
her daughter, who very kindly invited me 
into the parlor, where I found a decrepit old 
lady, unable to rise from her chair, but 
engaged at literary work. I apologized for 
my intrusion by saying that I had been a 
delegate to the convention which nominated 
General Fremont for President in 1856, 
and that I simply desired to have the pleas- 
ure of a personal visit to the wife of one 
whose life was so sublimely interwoven with 
the romance of American history. She 
gave me more than a cordial welcome, and 
her pale, emaciated face brightened at the 
tribute paid to the memory of the husband 
to whom she was so ardently devoted. I 
made the visit brief, as extended conversa- 
tion would have wearied her, and she gave 
me a very fervent clasp of the hand as I 
bade her farewell. 

Her family consists of herself and a 

48 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

maiden daughter, whose head is well sil- 
vered by age. Mrs. Fremont's means are 
quite limited, but a society of ladies of 
the city are taking care that she shall 
never want for any of the comforts of life. 
She is writing the biography of her hus- 
band, which will doubtless, when pub- 
lished, be welcomed by the many who, in 
the bright times of the Republican party 
of to-day, turn back to its first great strug- 
gles in 1856, when the " Pathfinder of the 
Rockies" was in fact the pathfinder of 
Republicanism. 

The route from Southern California to 
El Paso crosses the entire Territory of 
Arizona and a large portion of New 
Mexico, a distance of about five hundred 
miles, and it is the most inhospitable re- 
gion I have ever found in traversing almost 
every part of the Rockies, the Sierras of 
California and the Sierra Madres, in both 

4 49 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

the United States and Mexico. Fortu- 
nately it was midwinter, and we suffered 
comparatively little from the impalpable 
dust highly charged with alkali that pene- 
trates not only the eyes, ears, nose, and 
mouth, but I found it even inside of my 
tightly fitting watch-case. There is hardly 
a sign of American civilization to be found 
in that entire journey. Here and there 
are rude villages of a few adobe dwellings, 
with occasionally one little frame building 
that gives some outward signs of the com- 
forts of home, but as far as can be seen 
over the sage-brush plains to the confusion 
of mountains which wall them in there is 
rarely a green patch in sight. A vast 
amount of stock is grown upon them, but 
the absence of water brings an element of 
danger even to the stock-grower, as in times 
of drought they become extremely dry and 
whole droves are sometimes lost, while 

60 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

others may be saved by early driving to 
more favored regions. Where water can 
be had for irrigation, the soil responds 
very bountifully, and alfalfa can be grown 
to protect herds from drought, but there 
are so few places where water is obtainable 
that the country is not likely ever to be 
much more promising than it is to-day. 
Both New Mexico and Arizona have boun- 
tiful valleys where there is an abundance 
of water, but the line of the railway is 
necessarily located on the least fruitful 
portions of both these Territories. 

El Paso is on the northern bank of the 
Eio Grande and the extreme southern line 
of Texas. There is little about it to build 
up a city, beyond the seven or more rail- 
roads which centre there, but the large 
trafl&c and travel between the United States 
and Mexico have made it a prosperous city, 
and it is likely to continue in its growth. 

51 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

Whenever tlie Eio Grande is crossed 
you are met by the Mexican customs officer, 
dressed in a style that at once distinguishes 
him from the common herd of Indians and 
half-breeds seen about the stations on the 
way. The height of crown and elegance 
of gold embroidery of his sombrero and 
his flowing cloak and gilded uniform would 
do justice to an Oriental monarch, and his 
manner is that of a modern Csesar. It 
required an hour and a half for the Mexi- 
can customs officers to inspect the baggage 
and persons of the passengers, and in most 
instances it was done exhaustively, as 
smuggling in a small way is very common. 
I consulted the conductor, who was an 
American, as to how best to get along with 
the Mexican officials, and he said it de- 
pended altogether upon the particular offi- 
cer who happened to come into the car. 
He added that he would find an officer and 

62 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

bring him in. In a little while he appeared 
with an officer, who walked through the 
ear, looked at the trunks without touching 
them or even asking that they be opened, 
and after an apparently careful inspection 
of the occupants, he made a very polite 
bow and said that all was well. 

When he passed from the car I asked 
the conductor whether he expected to be 
tipped. He said he thought it well to 
suggest it. I asked him what he thought 
the officer would expect. He said a dollar, 
Mexican money. An American half-dollar 
was taken by the conductor, but the officer 
came back and bowed again and stated 
that he knew there were no smugglers in 
private cars, and very politely declined 
the tip. 

Rare as are the evidences of progressive 
civilization in New Mexico and Arizona 
along the line of the Southern Pacific 

53 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

Eailroad, the traveller notices at once when 
he gets into Mexico that an entirely different 
civilization is presented. At all the sta- 
tions there were crowds of idlers; men, 
women, and children, all illy clad and 
without any semblance of business enter- 
prise. What first impressed me most was 
the large number of full-blooded Indians. 
In a crowd of fifty it is very rare to see as 
many as half a dozen half-breeds, and they 
were little, if any, improvement on the 
aborigines. 

I had supposed that the Mexican blood 
was more largely dominant among the 
Mexican people, but in a journey of over 
twelve hundred miles from El Paso to this 
city I found no change. Here and there 
a trace of the Spaniard could be found, but, 
as a rule, pure-blooded Indians prevailed 
everywhere, and most of them seemed to 
have learned very little since Cortez came 

54 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

to teach them the new civilization of Spain. 
The only thing that is visible on every 
hand as a monument of the Cortez invasion 
and conquest is the cross. I have never 
been out of sight of the cross from the Rio 
Grande to this city. It is found not only 
on graves, churches, and many other build- 
ings, but uniformly on the mile-posts of 
the railroad. The cross is a protection to 
the mile-post, as the religious superstition 
of the natives prevents them from steal- 
ing it, and it possibly increases the safety 
of the line from spoliation in other ways. 

The country through Mexico on the line 
of the railroad is generally quite an im- 
provement over the country traversed by 
the railroad in Arizona and New Mexico, 
but it is only here and there that there are 
any marked evidences of civilization. The 
average home of the Mexican is a little 
adobe hut of a single low story, and many 

55 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

of them not large enough to make a com- 
fortable-sized bath-room in a Philadelphia 
house. There is sometimes an opening in 
the wall which serves the purpose of a 
window, but always guiltless of glass, and 
this is the home of four-fifths of the Mexi- 
can people. Throughout Mexico there are 
many delightful exceptions to the general 
squalor that prevails. Some of the ranches 
have on them elegant homes with superb 
furnishings, and most of them are owned 
by pure Spaniards; but outside of that 
class and a few families of fortune in the 
towns and cities the poverty of Mexico is 
appalling. Theft is so common that a 
porter in charge of a private car is com- 
pelled to watch it night and day, or the 
locks of his meat refrigerator would be 
broken and the brass finishings of the car 
wrenched from it, to be sold for whatever 
they would bring. 

56 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

The large preponderance of the Indian 
race in this country is not so surprising 
when it is remembered that some of the 
most heroic achievements of Mexican his- 
tory have made the names of pure-blooded 
Indians immortal. Juarez, who was driven 
from his capital by Maximilian, and who 
in turn executed the invader, was a full- 
blooded Indian, and President Diaz, who 
has done more for Mexico than any man 
who ever lived in it, is of half Indian 
blood. The Spanish are still here, but 
they are a select class, as a rule. When 
the Spaniard has lost fortune, his individ- 
uality and even his race become lost by 
intermingling with the Indians, but there 
are yet a considerable number who cherish 
the old Castilian pride, and have main- 
tained more or less of fortune. 

The Valley of Mexico, in which the 
capital is located, is almost a copy of Salt 

57 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

Lake Valley. They are the two most fruit- 
ful and beautiful of any of the mountain 
valleys on the continent, and each is sur- 
rounded by cliffs and mountains with their 
eternal caps of snow. The chief difference 
between this valley and that of Salt Lake 
is the cultivation of the maguey plant, 
which you see spread over hundreds and 
hundreds of acres, making the whole 
country bright with the rich, green verdure 
it presents. It is known in the United 
States as the aloe plant, but has no value 
either for commercial or ornamental pur- 
poses, while here it is very remunerative to 
the Mexican husbandman. It is grown 
for the purpose of furnishing the common 
drink of the Mexican people, known as 
pulque. It has to be drawn from the 
stocks every day. The method of draw- 
ing it is to hollow out a gourd and make 
a hole in each end of it. The maguey 

58 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 



plant is tlien scraped out, and as tlie liquid 
flows from it the operator, with his mouth 
on one end of the gourd, at the opening, 
draws the liquid in at the other end, and 
when the gourd is filled, empties it into a 
receptacle and repeats the operation. It is 
then emptied into pig-skins and brought 
into the city fresh every morning, where it 
is enjoyed by the great mass of the Mexi- 
can people. It does not keep over a day, 
and what is not sold by night is thrown 
away. Another Mexican drink, distilled 
from sugar-cane, and resembling brandy, 
is tequila. As an intoxicant, pulque bears 
about the same relation to tequila as beer 
bears to whiskey in the States. 

My first experience in the City of 
Mexico was not particularly enjoyable. 
Everything seemed to be going at a head- 
long gait, the streets were crowded, and 
business hustling ; but when I went to 



59 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

the chief hotel of the city, the Iturbide, 
there was not a man in the office or about 
it who could speak English. I finally 
managed to get it understood that I wanted 
letters which were directed there, and I 
was pointed to a peck or more of letters 
lying on a table, where I found a number 
for myself and members of my party. I 
had ordered newspapers sent to me, and 
after much difficulty I made it understood 
that I expected some newspapers, but was 
told that there was none there. I was 
persistent, as I was anxious to see the 
papers from home, and finally I was re- 
ferred to a Mexican in a little office-box 
who had charge of the keys of the rooms, 
and after much difficulty got him to under- 
stand what I wanted. He shook his head 
and insisted that none had come. 

Knowing the common infirmity of the 
people here in the matter of lying, I man- 

60 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 



aged to get an interpreter to make tlie fel- 
low understand that there were newspapers, 
and that I must have them. He finally 
pointed to a dark corner in the rear of his 
little room, where there was certainly a 
barrel of newspapers, pamphlets, and 
debris of all sorts in confusion. He said 
there might be some there, but he had not 
time to get them. I inquired when he 
would have time, to which he answered 
that he might be able to look during the 
day. I then insisted upon looking myself, 
and found a number of Philadelphia 
papers. I concluded that I did not want 
to stop as a guest of the hotel, and went to 
the Hotel Sanz, where I found comfortable 
quarters and several persons who spoke 
English very well. 



61 



THE CATHEDRAL, THE BULL- 
FIGHT, THE GAMBLING-PALACE 

City of Mexico, February 4, 1901. 

Sunday is the only day in which the 
Mexican character can be studied with 
accuracy. It is a day of mingled wor- 
ship and sport, and generally devoted to 
enjoyment by all classes and conditions. 
An intelligent tourist may mingle with 
the Mexican people in all their varied 
relations of life for months and not see 
them as they really are, but a single 
Sunday in which the Mexican is followed 
from his morning altar to his afternoon 
bull-fight and to his evening Mexican 
Monte Carlo shows that many of the 
same people are to be met at all these 
notable centres, where the Mexican is 
seen in his every-day life and where one 

62 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

can readily comprehend his general char- 
acter. 

One of the most notable landmarks of 
the Mexican conquest nearly four centuries 
ago is the cathedral. It faces the front 
of the grand plaza of the city on the 
north, and is the most pretentious of all 
the Christian churches in the New World. 
It is called the Holy Metropolitan Church 
of Mexico, and was erected on the site of 
the great Aztec temple, that told in some 
measure the story of the prehistoric people 
of this country. It is a fearful reproach to 
the Spaniards, and especially to the repre- 
sentatives of Christianity who first came 
into Mexico, that they destroyed every ves- 
tige of what they called the pagan altars. 
So far as it was possible, the early monks 
effaced every sign of the Toltecs and of 
their successors, the Aztecs, and with them 
the history of that civilization, if it may be 

63 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

so called, which was preserved with much 
care by the aborigines. 

They not only had their temples, all of 
which exhibit a degree of intelligence and 
general enlightenment far exceeding that 
ever exhibited by the Indians in the United 
States, but the Spaniards left no monu- 
ments that indicated a purpose to preserve 
early history and achievements. The 
Toltecs, who ruled this country some 
fifteen centuries ago, had their temples and 
their shrines, more or less imposing, in 
every community. Many of their temples 
and monoliths were covered with hiero- 
glyphics to give some record of their im- 
portance and progress, and they advanced 
to the extent of additional efforts to pre- 
serve their history by paintings on canvas 
made of the fibre of the maguey plant 
and on the skins of animals, all of which 
were doomed to destruction by those who 

64 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

planted here the banner of the cross. 
Fortunately, a few, yet very few, of these 
works have been preserved, and may be 
seen in the National Museum in this city. 
The ruins of their temples remain in 
many sections, with immense decorated 
monoliths which show a degree of culture 
and general intelligence not exhibited in 
any other section occupied by Indians in 
the Western World. 

Their great temple was in this city, then 
known as Tenochtitlan, and it was not only 
destroyed by the Spanish, but as far as 
possible every relic and vestige of it oblit- 
erated. In its place is now reared the 
great cathedral that was commenced im- 
mediately after the occupation by the 
Spanish. It was nearly eighty years before 
it was completed to an extent sufficient to 
justify its dedication, and nearly a century 
and a quarter elapsed before its towers 

5 65 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

were erected and its bells placed in posi- 
tion. It is four hundred feet in length 
and one hundred and seventy-seven feet in 
width, with a height of one hundred and 
seventy-nine feet from the roof to the tiles, 
while the towers reach the height of over 
two hundred feet. The front facade is 
magnificently carved and rich with friezes 
and marble statues between the two leading 
towers, which are replete with bell-shaped 
caps, and the cross in stone is always in 
view. The cornices are filled with statues 
of saints and leaders of the church. Its 
architecture is a mixture of Gothic and 
Doric, and twenty most massive fluted 
columns of stone support the roof, which 
under the dome are shaped into a Latin 
cross. 

This great cathedral has fourteen chapels 
or shrines, one-half in each aisle, all of 
which are dedicated to some particular 

66 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

saint, and exquisite pictures, enclosed in 
the richest gilt, portray the lives of notable 
saints. 

I went to the cathedral about ten o'clock 
on Sunday morning and found religious 
ceremonies progressing with a multitudi- 
nous assembly in the great auditorium in 
the front part of the building. There were 
no chairs or other seats in this apartment, 
and all worshipped in a kneeling position. 
Passing along the richly decorated aisle 
to the northern auditorium another large 
assembly of worshippers was presented. 
Some were sitting on the very rude and 
evidently very ancient benches, while 
others were on their knees. This seemed 
to be the centre of ceremony, as a number 
of priests were officiating at what is known 
as the high altar. The northern end of 
the cathedral has the richest and most ex- 
quisitely finished altar to be found in any 

67 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

country outside of Rome. Every part of 
both the long aisles is decorated with the 
highest types of art of the age in which 
they were produced, and would be an in- 
teresting study for days to any one specially 
interested in the art of five centuries ago 
in both architecture and painting. 

Standing near the centre of this great 
church, it is appalling in its colossal mag- 
nificence, and while everything in and 
about the cathedral shows unmistakable 
marks of age, all have been preserved with 
scrupulous care and kept as a perpetual 
record of the grandeur that was inter- 
woven with Christianity in the dark days 
of four centuries ago. 

I was much surprised to find but few 
of the better class of Mexicans. At the 
doors I saw no carriages around the cathe- 
dral, and in the vast assemblage, and 
among the many who were on their knees 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

at every step from one end to the other of 
these long aisles, I rarely saw any one 
whose appearance indicated the average in- 
telligence of the better class of Mexicans. 
At the doors of entry, both inside and out- 
side, Mexican beggars were plying their 
vocation without interruption, and it soon 
became evident that this grand cathedral, 
that should naturally be the pride of all 
the members of its faith, is the place of 
worship of the poor. I saw hundreds of 
ragged Indians among the worshippers, 
and the rule among them all was obvious 
poverty and ignorance. 

The music, of course, was superb, befit- 
ting its exceptionally rich surroundings, 
but this great temple of religious culture 
and embellishment is shunned by the better 
class of Mexicans. 

After spending an hour in the cathedral 
I asked my guide where the better class of 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

Mexicans worshipped, and learned from 
him that the cathedral was the altar of the 
multitude, while a much better class wor- 
shipped at San Felipe. We repaired to 
that church, of only moderate size, but 
elegant in architecture and decoration, as 
are all the churches in Mexico, and there 
found an assembly of quite cultivated and 
intelligent people. I did not notice among 
them, however, the class of Mexicans I 
desired to see at worship, and upon inquiry 
I learned that most of the Spanish and 
Mexican grandees have their own altars at 
their homes, where a priest comes at stated 
intervals to minister to them. 

After devoting Sunday morning to re- 
ligious services, the next illustration of 
Mexican tastes, habits, and enjoyments was 
given at the bull-fight, which is held every 
Sunday afternoon, beginning promptly at 
3.30 o'clock. I went early to escape the 

70 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

blinding dust of tlie Mexican suburban 
streets, and finally brought up before an 
immense pavilion, capable of seating fifteen 
thousand people, with double rows of pri- 
vate boxes, which are almost invariably 
filled, and largely by American visitors. 
As far as I could see from both sides of 
my box, they were occupied entirely by 
Americans, while the Mexican people, en 
masse, as it would seem, crowded the seats, 
which run down close to the ring. A 
judge was in one of the upper boxes, where 
he had full view of all the conflicts in the 
ring, and communicated with a bugler, 
who issued the orders at every stage of 
the proceedings. Although the day was 
beautiful, the attendance was disappointing 
to the Mexicans, as there were only about 
ten thousand people present. That was 
explained by the absence of any great 
star toreador, all of them being Mexicans, 

71 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

while the attractive stars of the profession 
come from Spain. 

The immense audience was an interesting 
study. It was not in any material degree 
composed of those we would describe as 
the toughs or roughs of our Eastern cities. 
The lower grade of Mexican is, as a rule, 
too poor to enjoy a bull-fight, and the 
vast audience plainly exhibited the combi- 
nation of the average and better class of 
Mexicans. It is quite the thing for the 
best people of the city and the highest 
officials to be present at the bull-fight. 
President Diaz has honored it with his 
presence, although not a frequent atten- 
dant, and the most cultured families of 
Mexico regard it as entirely becoming to 
witness this lingering relic of Spanish 
brutality. 

Precisely at half-past three o'clock, a 
door opened on the northern side of the 

72 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

ring and the alguazil entered, mounted 
on a splendid horse, both man and horse 
wearing the gaudiest trappings. He was 
welcomed with hearty shouts, and bowed 
gratefully to the vast audience on every 
side. After properly saluting the people, 
he rode to the front of the box of the 
judge, or president, and formally asked 
permission to kill the bulls. This was 
promptly granted, and the keys of the 
toril, or pen, in which the bulls were 
confined, were tossed to him. This is his 
only part in the performance, and he is 
cheered or hissed as he happens to catch, 
or fails to catch, the keys which are 
thrown to him from the upper box. The 
gate then opened again, and the brilliantly 
equipped company of toreadors and their 
various attendants was announced by the 
band giving out its highest notes. Alto- 
gether there were probably twenty of them, 

73 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

all richly caparisoned. They marched 
across the ring, amid thunders of applause 
from the audience, and made their bow to 
the president before the fight began. 

The men immediately concerned in the 
fight are, — first, the matadors, who are the 
stars of the company, and attract here just 
as great stars attract in dramatic circles in 
other countries. They are not permitted 
to take any part in the combat until the 
bugle announces that the bull shall be 
killed. A single matador then comes for- 
ward with a sword, and he is aided in dis- 
tracting the attention of the bull by the 
banderilleros, who are second only to the 
matador in the profession. Next in rank 
come the picadors, who are on horseback, 
with long and sharp-pointed lances. The}^ 
are mounted on old and generally worthless 
horses, fit only to be killed, and most of 
the horses suffer death. In addition to the 

74 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

artistes of the battle there are four richly- 
decorated mules, whose office is to drag 
out the dead bulls and horses. They are 
attended by men with shovels and brooms 
to clear up the ring, and with boxes con- 
taining sand, with which they cover the 
blood that is shed in the arena after each 
fight. 

The toreador is always dressed in the 
richest costume, and only that which be- 
longs distinctly to his profession, exhibiting 
silk, satin, and velvet, with golden decora- 
tions. The most distinguishing mark of 
the toreador is the small cue of plaited hair, 
which is regarded as an evidence of merit, 
as it is ruthlessly cut off with scissors of 
gold when he fails to meet all the require- 
ments of his profession. 

A blast of the bugle announces that a 
bull is about to be admitted to the ring, 
and one trained to the business at the side 

75 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

of the door and above the reach of the bull 
plunges a sharp barbed dart, gayly deco- 
rated with ribbons, into the neck of the 
animal. This is intended to anger him 
at the start and make him enter the ring 
ready for battle. 

The first bull plunged into the ring in a 
most ferocious manner. His weight was 
probably about one thousand pounds, and 
he exhibited the most complete symmetry 
of form, with every evidence of strength. 
These bulls are grown in the mountains 
of Mexico in as wild a state as possible 
consistent with keeping them under con- 
trol, and are not subjected to any of the 
domesticating influences of the other cattle 
on the ranch. They are trained solely 
for the purpose of fighting, and for each 
Sunday's battle eight or ten of them are 
brought to the city, and it is not uncom- 
mon that bulls which seem to be among 

76 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

the most ferocious at home play the 
coward when they enter the ring. 

The first bull was ready for battle from 
the start. He was at first completely 
bewildered by the strange spectacle, and 
whirled around the centre of the ring with 
great rapidity, evidently undecided where 
he would begin the fight. 

The bull is first engaged by the most 
skilful manipulation of the capes, which 
are lined with red, and at which he will 
make a fierce dash. A very singular feat- 
ure of the bull-fight is that in no case does 
the bull rush at the man, but always at the 
cape. It is therefore comparatively easy 
for the man flying the cape to escape the 
dashes of the bull. His only danger is 
that after the bull has passed the cape he 
may turn and get the fighter at a disad- 
vantage. But they are all very expert, 
and if in danger from the second attack 

77 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

they fly to the edge of the ring, where a 
fence of some five feet in height separates 
a wide passage between the audience and 
the ring. 

The first bull dashed at the fighter's 
cape, and after he had passed it, turned 
upon the fighter, who escaped by jumping 
the inner fence into the passage. But the 
bull leaped the fence after him, which 
compelled the fighter to seek safety by 
mounting the outer fence. In a little while 
the bull ran around the passage to the 
entrance into the ring and resumed the 
battle. Soon after the combat began, the 
picadors, who were mounted on blindfolded 
horses, rode up to the bull and challenged 
him to battle. This challenge was promptly 
accepted by the bull. During the fight he 
suffered a spear-thrust from one of the 
riders, but he tumbled horse and rider 
over in a heap and vaulted over them. 

78 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

The rider escaped, but the horse was fatally 
wounded. Another horse took his place, 
and the two picadors offered battle to the 
bull at every stage ; and this was done with 
the full knowledge that the bull had every 
opportunity to kill the horse, with a likeli- 
hood of injury to the rider. During the 
entire performance eight horses were killed 
and dragged from the ring, and one of the 
riders was seriously injured. 

The bull was by this time mad enough 
to fight all creation. He had suffered no 
injury beyond the irritating dart that had 
been plunged into him when he entered 
the ring and the spearing he had received 
from the mounted picadors. The bugler 
then sounded the order for the banderilleros 
to enter the conflict. They were without 
capes or means of defence. Each held 
in his hands a number of banderillas, — a 
sharp barbed dart, decorated with fancy- 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

colored ribbons. It is their mission to 
watch an opportunity while the capadores 
are distracting the attention of the bull to 
plunge these darts into the neck of the 
bull near the shoulder. It is really the 
most perilous of all the duties of the bull- 
fighter, and some of them made very nar- 
row escapes. If one succeeds in placing 
two of his darts in the bull's shoulders he 
is cheered vociferously by the audience, 
but it is not common for that measure of 
success to be attained. It often requires 
repeated efforts to hurl them at all, as they 
must be near the bull, and just when the 
opportunity is presented the safety of the 
fighter often requires him to make a swift 
retreat. The first bull was a difficult cus- 
tomer to deal with, and only one of the 
banderilleros succeeded in landing two of 
his darts in the neck of the animal, but all 
were required to make the effort and plant 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

at least one dart in the flesli of the bull. 
These darts enter for two or three inches, 
and are held in position by their barbed 
attachment. They are nearly two feet 
long, and the bull was driven to frenzy, 
as he whirled around in the combat, by 
these long, barbed instruments swinging 
wildly over his neck, inflicting intolerable 
pain. 

When the work of the banderilleros was 
finished, the bugle sounded again, and the 
matador was summoned to finish the fight 
with his sword. He was received with 
shouts of applause, to which he responded 
by bowing and walking around the ring, 
ending in paying his respects to some dis- 
tinguished visitor, to whom he proposed to 
dedicate his achievement. He had in his 
left hand the muleta, or red rag of the 
Spanish bull-fight, which is used only in 
the final combat. In his right hand he 

fi 81 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

held a perfectly straight, sharp-pointed, 
and keen-edged sword, and he must kill 
the bull, when the opportunity is pre- 
sented, by a single stroke of the sword, by 
driving it into the bulFs shoulder to sever 
the spinal cord, or by directly piercing the 
heart. This thrust cannot be made unless 
the bull is in a charging attitude, as he 
then lowers his head and exposes his 
shoulders to the matador. 

At this point of the fight the bull was 
much exhausted, thus somewhat lessening 
the danger of the final act of the drama. 
But the bull was game, and was kept busy 
by the capadores until he could be gotten 
into position for the final thrust. He made 
charge after charge at the capes, but finally 
was brought into position, when the mata- 
dor, then at a distance of six or eight feet 
from the bull, ran up to him, made his 
thrust, and escaped before the bull could 

82 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

charge him. The audience applauded tu- 
multuously, because he had done his brutal 
work in an artistic manner. The bull 
immediately began to totter on his feet, 
and in a little time fell to his knees. He 
was game, however, even in the agony of 
death, and rose to his feet again and made 
several desperate lunges at his foes, but he 
dropped again, and, although he struggled 
desperately to rise, finally turned upon his 
side. His heart had not been pierced, and 
death was not likely to come for some 
time, so the " stroke of mercy," as it is 
called, was given by the cachetero with a 
short dagger, who made a quick thrust 
between the horns that convulsed the bull 
for a moment, and he was dead. 

The mules then came to their work of 
dragging him out of the ring, and imme- 
diately thereafter a line of battle was 
formed for the second bull. When he 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

entered the ring he was not only of a more 
nervous temperament than the one who had 
just given his life for the amusement of the 
people, but he had very long and sharp 
horns, and all the fighters approached him 
with great caution. He was quicker in 
movement than any of the other bulls 
which entered the ring during the fight, 
and whenever he made a dash he cleared 
that side of the ring of all the fighters. 
No two bulls, I am told, fight exactly alike. 
Some will make short dashes and others 
long dashes. The skirmish-line of the 
battle is a study on the part of the fighters 
to ascertain the exact fighting methods of 
the bull. On several occasions the fighters 
in front of him narrowly escaped, but even 
with this nervous and quick action of the 
bull he had the tactical defect that is com- 
mon to all bulls in the ring-fight : he did 
not charge to a finish. When the bull 

84 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

endangers the one who is immediately en- 
gaged with him, the capadores rush in 
and divert him, as the bull is always ready 
to turn from a man to fight a red cape. 
He was game for more than half the battle, 
but as his strength weakened his aggres- 
sive qualities failed him, and in the last 
part of his fight he exhibited none of the 
courageous features of his predecessor. 
There was little or no variation in this 
conflict from what I have detailed in the 
first. He was killed by another mata- 
dor, at a single thrust of the sword, and 
dropped almost instantly when struck. 

The third bull was then turned into the 
ring, and looked to be the most formidable 
of all, as he was certainly two hundred or 
three hundred pounds heavier than either 
of the two which had preceded him, and 
when he rushed into the ring, having re- 
ceived the irritating dart just as he entered, 

85 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

he looked like a very formidable and 
vicious foe, but when the fighters closed in 
on him he became utterly cowed and 
showed no fighting qualities whatever. 
The mounted picador rode right up with 
the nose of the horse against the bull and 
struck him with the spear, but he refused 
to charge, and his bugle sounded the order 
for retiring the bull. • He saved his life by 
refusing battle. 

The fight thus continued until eight 
bulls were killed, but after the first one 
there was really not a fight that could be 
dignified by the expression. The bulls 
would make a few charges, but soon ap- 
preciated the hopelessness of the conflict 
and practically gave it up, much to the 
annoyance of the bull-fighters and to the 
utter disgust of the audience. They 
howled themselves hoarse in Spanish that I 
could not understand at the failure of the 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

bulls to give battle, evidently believing that 
better bulls should have been furnished. 

The audience was always on the side of 
the heroic, whether it was the fighter or the 
bull. One matador, who had not a fierce 
bull to contend with, made three thrusts 
at the bull before he seriously wounded 
him, his sword only partially penetrating 
the animal, and being soon thrown out by 
his violent motions. This awkward work 
of the matador aroused the indignation of 
the audience to the highest pitch, and 
instead of applauding him they howled 
and jeered at him. It was his business, 
however, to complete the work, and with 
the fourth effort he thrust the sword to the 
hilt, but penetrated the lungs instead of 
the heart, as was evidenced from the im- 
mediate and profuse bleeding of the bull 
at the nose and mouth. The bull at once 
tottered and soon fell, but he died with the 

87 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

hisses instead of the cheers of the audience 
for the matador. 

Such was the second feature of the Sun- 
day life in the capital of Mexico, and the 
large assembly was composed mainly of the 
people who had been at their altars but a 
few hours before. The bull-ring is now 
opposed by a considerable class of the 
better element of Mexico, but it is so 
strongly entrenched in the admiration of 
the Mexican people that there seems to 
be no prospect of its early abolition. It 
was attempted a few years ago, but the 
overwhelming sentiment against the de- 
struction of the bull-ring compelled the 
national authorities to abandon the idea. 

As the bull-fight was exhibited in the 
early days of chivalry, considering the 
civilization of that time, I can understand 
why it was enjoyed by the people. It was 
a barbarous age, and bull-fights were inter- 

88 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

esting only as they were made barbarous, 
not only in the death of the bulls, but in 
the death or crippling of the bull-fighters. 
But the bull-fight of to-day in Mexico is 
only a grotesque comedy of the chivalry 
and heroism which inaugurated it centu- 
ries ago. It is simply cheap and often 
cowardly brutality, but it will remain as 
an institution in Mexico until a better 
education prevails among her people, and 
of that I see little prospect. 

I saw this fight because I wanted to 
see the Mexican people as they are in 
the enjoyment of their chief amusement, 
but I cannot conceive of any circumstances 
or conditions which could induce me to 
witness a repetition of it. 

The bull-fight of the afternoon is appar- 
ently the logical sequel to the morning 
service at the altar, and the Monte Carlo of 
Mexico is the closing amusement. About 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

four miles from the heart of the city is a 
most beautiful establishment, known as 
Tivoli Cartagena. It is in a green and 
heartsome plain, just below the beautiful 
castle of Chapultepec. It is a most elabo- 
rate establishment, with a beautiful grove 
in the centre decorated with flowers, and 
with everything to entice the visitor, even 
if not inclined to try the roulette and 
monte tables. 

Elegant concerts are common in the 
evening until ten o'clock, and the Mexican 
Sunday always ends with an immense 
throng of people who visit this establish- 
ment to enjoy its beauty and fragrance or 
to try the chances of the game. There are 
two large main gambling-rooms on the 
first and second floors, with tables covering 
their entire length excepting the room re- 
quired for the players. Here are men and 
women of almost every age, trying their 

90 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

luck at the gaming-tables, and among 
them an obvious mingling of the demi- 
monde. Both rooms were crowded, and 
hundreds of players were at the table, 
women taking their places, regardless of 
acquaintance, and devoting themselves in- 
tently to the game. The tables were cov- 
ered with great stacks of Mexican dollars, 
all new and fresh from the mint, but the 
large stakes are paid in Mexican paper. 

The extent of the game may be under- 
stood from the fact that the authorities of 
the City of Mexico receive from the proprie- 
tor twenty-eight thousand dollars a month 
for the exclusive privilege of maintaining 
gaming establishments in the city. The 
owner is immensely rich, and his profession 
does not give him the social and political 
ostracism that he incurs in our better 
civilization. 

Every Sunday until long after midnight 

91 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

at times the crowd goes out to this magnifi- 
cent gambling-house. The cars are con- 
stantly crowded with people going to try 
their luck or enjoying the evening, and 
other crowds returning, a few rejoicing at 
their good fortune, the many bewailing 
their ill-luck, and with a large proportion 
of them dead broke. The regular trolley 
cars run to the city until eleven o'clock, 
but special cars are held there to convey 
home those who may linger with the game 
until after railroad schedule hours. 

In these three great institutions of the 
City of Mexico you see the Mexican 
people as they are. Most of them are 
devotedly religious in their way, and in a 
very bad way. They are scrupulous in 
the observance of the ceremonies of their 
religion, but the bowing worshipper at the 
altar in the morning may pick your pocket 
under the very shadow of his altar, and he 

92 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

will be most enthusiastic at the bull-fight 
in the afternoon, and round out his ob- 
servance of Sunday at the gaming-table. 
Such is the story in brief of a Sunday in 
the capital of Mexico. 



93 



CHAPULTEPEC AND 
GUADALUPE 

City of Mexico, February 5, 1901. 

Of all the many picturesque scenes 
immediately about this city which invite 
the tourist, Chapultepec is in every way 
the grandest. It is not only grand in 
natural beauty, but it is richest in historic 
and legendary lore of any of the many 
beautiful and memorable places around the 
capital. 

It stands like a great, irregular, and 
somewhat oval pyramid, about two miles 
from- the city, with the rich and fresh Val- 
ley of Mexico completely encircling it. It 
starts on the level plain on the west with a 
gentle elevation, and gradually increases 
in height until it reaches its northern ex- 
tremity, where it terminates abruptly in an 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

almost impassable cliff, presenting a rugged 
rocky face to welcome the approaching 
visitor. On its summit the historical 
palace of the Montezumas begins at the 
very edge of the front cliff and extends 
westward probably a distance of one hun- 
dred and fifty feet, where it adjoins the 
military school of Mexico, corresponding 
with our West Point, and in which there 
are now nearly three hundred cadets. 

The hill is ascended by an excellent road, 
forming almost a complete circle to reach 
the official palace, that can be entered by 
a foreigner only on a card issued by his 
ambassador. Our American ambassador. 
General Clayton, and his son, Lieutenant 
Clayton, who is military attache to the 
legation, were very generous in their cour- 
tesy, and promptly furnished the party 
with the necessary credentials. 

The great causeway from the city to 

95 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

Chapultepec — the Paseo de la Reforma — is 
the fashionable drive of Mexico. It is 
about two hundred feet in width, but the 
main causeway is narrowed by double rows 
of trees extending along its entire length, 
presenting perpetual verdure. It has al- 
ways been one of the chief causeways of the 
city, even before the Spanish conquest, and 
leads to what is commonly called the Hall 
of the Montezumas, which has been the 
palace of emperors, kings, viceroys, and 
presidents for nearly six hundred years ; 
but it was not until poor Carlotta came to 
grace the palace of Chapultepec that this 
great causeway was made one of the most 
delightful highways in any city. It was 
by her determined efforts that it was 
made not only a beautiful causeway, but 
the centre of the embellishment of the 
capital. 

Starting from a circle at a central point 

96 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

in the city, in which is an equestrian statue 
of Charles IV., thence all along the broad 
highway are statues of men who have made 
records in the history of Mexico. This 
feature of embellishment is not yet com- 
plete, but for two-thirds of the way there 
are beautiful statues every few hundred 
feet on either side, and they represent 
every phase of Mexican history. Promi- 
nent among these statues are the more 
distinguished Aztecs, presented in their 
Indian plumes and trappings, and heroes 
and statesmen are intermingled to tell the 
story of the progress of civilization in the 
land of the Aztecs. 

This great causeway comes up squarely 
in front of the cliffs of Chapultepec, and 
thence passes around on either side, and 
every evening, especially on Sunday even- 
ing, it is crowded with equipages and 
equestrians, from the descendants of the 

7 97 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

old Spanish and Mexican grandees down 
to the cheapest Mexican who can mount 
a broncho. 

Arriving at the base of the cliff, the 
ascent is easy by a long road that winds 
around to reach the summit. You first 
come in contact with the Mexican cadets 
and their officers. They are an unusually 
bright and active lot of young men, almost 
wholly Mexicans, or of the mingled race 
of Spanish and Indian. Only here and 
there among them did I notice a full- 
blooded Indian. On reaching the gate 
that opens into the palace grounds the 
visitor is divested of cameras and every- 
thing that might tempt to desecration, 
and an official guide takes charge of the 
party. 

On the northern front of the cliff, 
where the palace is entered, there is the 
most beautiful view I have ever seen in 

98 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

any of the many mountain valleys I have 
traversed. A few miles away the City of 
Mexico nestles in the plain that was a vast 
lake in the days of the Aztecs, and its 
unbroken lines of white houses loom up 
in beautiful contrast with the green fields 
about. To the left and close by is what is 
known as the battle-field of Molino del 
Rey, the scene of the last struggle between 
the army of Scott and the Mexicans, as it 
resulted in the successful assault upon 
Chapultepec. 

Still farther off to the left stands the 
historic church known as Guadalupe Hi- 
dalgo, with its little village clustering 
about it, and immediately in front to the 
north we have a magnificent view of Popo- 
catapetl and its larger of girth but more 
rudely fashioned twin sister, Iztaccihuatl, 
with their eternal caps of snow. 

Visitors are permitted to pass through 

99 

LofC. 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

all the various rooms of the palace, 
and it is a most interesting and in- 
structive entertainment. All the apart- 
ments present the appearance of regal 
grandeur, and some of the richest decora- 
tions in fresco were made under the imme- 
diate direction of Carlotta. It is the only 
place outside of the museum where you 
may find relics of the lost empire of Maxi- 
milian. In almost every room you can 
see some vestige of the new and imperial 
embellishments to tell the story of his sad 
reign. They contain not only his mono- 
gram, but the imperial crown. In one of 
the anterooms are two chairs which be- 
longed to Cortez, but these are all that can 
be found as relics of the ancient ruler. 

President Diaz makes his home in this 
palace during three months of the summer 
season, and his family rooms are a grand 
suite, including reception-room, boudoir, 

100 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

chamber, dining-room, smoking-room, and 
card-room, all beautifully furnished and 
embellished in elegant taste. 

On entering the second story a most 
beautiful scene is presented. The first 
story of the palace is built around the 
summit of the cliff, leaving the summit to 
remain and extend up to the level with the 
second story, where it has been converted 
into a delightful flower garden that is as 
fragrant as it is charming. On one of the 
stairways the entire wall and ceiling are 
decorated with coats-of-arms of all the 
varied rulers of Mexico. The frescoing 
and painting of the walls are in high style 
of art, presenting the richest and grandest 
embellishment that can be found anywhere 
in the City of Mexico. Every room and 
every passage-way in this great palace 
gives some new attraction, and I know of 
no more interesting place to study the 

101 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

civilization of Mexico than in this grand 
structure, that dates back to the first of the 
Montezumas and was the home of the last 
of the Aztec rulers. 

On the summit of the building is the na- 
tional observatory, from which is obtained a 
most sublime view of the Valley of Mexico. 
Surrounding the cliff of Chapultepec on 
every side there are magnificent trees and 
shrubs and flowers, and in the park close 
by there are gigantic cypresses which 
antedate even the days of Montezuma. 
Among them is one immense tree fully 
twelve feet in diameter, and giving evident 
signs of decay, where, as tradition tells the 
story, both Montezuma and Cortez wept 
over their defeats. On the rocks which 
fringe the surface of the cliffs are hiero- 
glyphics which have never been deciphered 
by our archaeologists, and on the plains 
below are the fragments of the old aque- 

102 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

ducts constructed by the Spanish viceroys 
to supply the city with water. 

Since the castle of Chapultepec has been 
the home of Mexican rulers it has wit- 
nessed many bloody and barbarous con- 
flicts. It was there that Montezuma first 
heard the guns of Cortez, who startled the 
Aztecs by his mounted soldiers, at first pre- 
sumed by the Aztecs to be demi-gods, and 
the horse and rider one creature, as horses 
were until then unknown among them. 
The first sound of cannon that ever shocked 
the Aztec nerve was when Cortez ap- 
proached the city, and finally entered it, 
after the capture of Montezuma, on what 
is now the great causeway leading from 
the city to Guadalupe Hidalgo. The 
Aztec city at that day was erected on piles 
or mounds to lift the houses above the water, 
and one of the first acts of Cortez was to 
destroy the temples, altars, and homes of 

103 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

the Aztecs, filling up the waterways with 
them. 

From this grand eminence the ruler of 
Mexico heard the first hoarse thunders of 
General Scott's guns, as they moved from 
Churubusco to Molino del Eey, from which 
base Scott bombarded Chapultepec, killing 
fourteen cadets, — as there were only cadets 
there to defend it, — and the fallen boy 
Mexican warriors of that conflict are buried 
in a common grave at the base of the cliff, 
with a beautiful monument erected over 
them. 

A quarter of a century later President 
Juarez, the great Indian ruler of Mexico, 
was compelled to flee from his palace and 
capital because of the decisive victories won 
by the French troops who were the fore- 
runners of Maximilian. After the brief 
story of the luckless empire had been re- 
corded in deeply crimsoned chapters in the 

104 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

annals o£ Mexico, Juarez was welcomed 
back to his palace, and since then Chapul- 
tepec has been the summer home of the 
Presidents of the republic. 

There are in Mexico a great many build- 
ings of historic interest, but there is not 
one, I believe, that equals Chapultepec. 
The original palace of Montezuma has al- 
most, if not entirely, disappeared under 
the stride of improvement in enlarging 
and beautifying this home of the Mexican 
rulers, but there will always cluster about 
it the most sacred memories of every civi- 
lization that Mexico has ever known, with 
the single exception of the Tol tecs'. They 
ruled here before the Aztecs became masters 
of the country, and are the earliest people 
of whom any history has been preserved, 
and that most imperfectly. But not only 
here, but in many places throughout 
Mexico, there are positive evidences of the 

105 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

varied standards of civilization of the 
rugged and heroic race conquered by 
Cortez. 

Leaving Chapultepec, the tourist natu- 
rally turns to Guadalupe, which is accepted 
by the Mexicans as the holiest shrine of 
the nation, and which is replete with the 
most romantic legends. My visit to this 
interesting place this inorning was on a 
double holiday — a civil holiday as the an- 
niversary of the adoption of the Mexican 
constitution, and a religious holiday in 
memory of St. Felipe. Mexicans have 
many holidays, and hugely enjoy them. 
Guadalupe is some seven or eight miles 
distant from the centre of the city, and is 
' reached by the old causeway, once studded 
with waterways, by which Cortez entered 
the city with Montezuma as prisoner. It 
is not now a fashionable highway, and 
there is little on its line to interest a 

106 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 



traveller. Immediately southeast of it is 
what was once a much more important 
causeway, but now occupied by a railroad, 
on which there are twelve shrines at stated 
distances between the city and Guadalupe. 
These shrines are beautifully constructed, 
although now crumbling under the wastage 
of centuries. Their purpose was to give 
the wayfarer an opportunity in passing by 
to worship at the shrine of his favorite 
saint. 

When the town of Guadalupe was 
reached there were many evidences of 
activity among the people. Being a re- 
ligious as well as a civil holiday, the 
church had an unusual assemblage of 
worshippers. Before entering the main 
church the crowd is attracted to the little 
but beautiful chapel that covers the " Holy 
Well," and the faithful all believe the 
legend that this spring, which bubbles 



107 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

up in an immense volume of clear, cold 
water, had its origin from the personal 
appearance of the Virgin. The water is 
regarded as sacred by all. The well is 
just inside the door of the chapel and is 
passed by those who enter for service. 
It was densely crowded by all classes and 
conditions of Mexicans, obtaining the holy 
water in bottles, pitchers, and jugs, all of 
whom approach the well with the utmost 
reverence and with uncovered heads. 

Entering the chapel, the visitor sees a 
beautifully decorated altar. It is small, 
but every part of it is most exquisitely em- 
bellished, evidently without regard to cost. 
There was no service in the chapel when 
I visited it, and I hastened to the main 
church, which is a most imposing structure. 
Its erection was begun in 1574, and it was 
finally dedicated in 1629. Around this 
large and beautifully constructed church, 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

by the universal faith of its worshippers, 
and generally throughout the entire re- 
public, the most sublime legends cluster. 
It was built, as they believe and teach, 
because the Virgin appeared in person 
nearly five centuries ago, and demanded 
that a temple in her honor should be 
reared at this place. It is the only place 
on the continent where the personal ap- 
pearance of the Virgin is claimed ; and it 
is distinctly asserted by the inscription on 
the slab in front of the altar as follows : 
"This is the true spot where was found 
the Most Holy Virgin beneath a maguey, 
by the Chief Don Juan Aguila, in the 
year 1540, where she said to him at the 
time of her appearance to him, that he 
should search for her." 

With such mingled romance and sanctity 
attaching to a church, among a people who 
are thoroughly devoted to the ceremonies 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

of their worship, it is not surprising that 
the church of Guadalupe Hidalgo has been 
made one of the richest shrines of the 
world. The entire massive balustrade 
around the altar and on both sides of the 
double stairway reaching from the floor 
to the altar is of solid silver, requiring 
twenty-six tons of the precious metal to 
construct it. 

In one of the many revolutions in 
Mexico, when the church party was de- 
feated, the solid silver railings and balus- 
trades and lamps were taken from the 
church by confiscation, but they were 
soon replaced, and to-day the church of 
Guadalupe Hidalgo has a vastly greater 
amount of solid silver furnishings than 
any temple in the Western World. It is 
an immense structure and most interesting 
to the student at every step. Its walls are 
decorated by magnificent paintings, most 

110 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

of them bearing more or less directly on 
the personal appearance of the Virgin at 
that place, and between these paintings are 
tablets in varied styles of elegance, which 
tell some story of the progress of the 
church and of its special sanctity as the 
holiest of all the shrines. 

I went to enter the church just at noon- 
day, when the hour of twelve was tolled, 
and the great bells of the towers rang out 
their loudest peals. As the bells began 
their music loud reports of cannon were 
heard, doubtless in celebration of the 
adoption of the constitution of the repub- 
lic, while the bells were commemorating 
the natal day of St. Felipe. 

I never witnessed such abject devotion as 
is exhibited by most of the many wor- 
shippers. Poor, ragged, shoeless men, 
women, and children were mingled with 

men and women of evident position and 
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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

culture, and there were at all times a num- 
ber of women crawling on their knees 
from the door of the church up to the altar 
with holy candles in their hands. As soon 
as a worshipper entered, he or she would 
pass to some particular seat in the church, 
then kneel down, after crossing the face 
and breast, according to the usual form of 
worship, and would long remain in the 
attitude of prayer. I noticed some who 
kneeled for more than half an hour and 
others who would kneel when entering, rise 
soon thereafter, and later would kneel again, 
as if returning to the most sacred devotion. 
I remained an hour to witness this interest- 
ing ceremony, and to view the beautiful 
spectacle presented by this most richly 
ornamented and palatial place of worship, 
and in all that time, although there was 
a priest with an attendant at the altar, 
he did not utter a word to the audience. 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

This great church is at the base of a 
steep cliff, nearly half the height of Cha- 
pultepec, and on its summit is another 
chapel, around which is one of the most 
noted cemeteries of the nation, where the 
dust of Santa Anna and many other Mexi- 
can leaders reposes. The country imme- 
diately about the village of Guadalupe is 
green and fresh, and it seems to have an un- 
usually prosperous community. The place 
is also memorable because it was here that 
the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was made 
in 1848, that concluded the war between 
the United States and Mexico, and gave 
us all our important Western possessions, 
reaching from east of the Rocky Mountains 
to the Pacific. It is regarded as the holy 
of holies by the Mexican people, who, as a 
rule, are of the religious faith that bows at 
the altar of Guadalupe, which was created 
by the personal command of the Virgin. 

8 113 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

I left the place strangely impressed with 
the universal religious fervor of the more 
ignorant and poverty-stricken people of 
Mexico. They are all religious as they 
understand it. High and low, rich and 
poor, good and bad, all are apparently 
equally devoted to the observance of the 
ceremonies of the church ; and not only 
the sincerely and consistently religious, of 
whom there are many, thus exhibit their 
devotion, but the murderer, the burglar, 
the sneak-thief, the courtesan, the gambler, 
and every other phase of the criminal 
classes are scrupulously religious in ob- 
serving the ceremonies of their faith. 

The church rules here on an entirely 
different basis from what it does in the 
more intelligent countries of the world, 
and every condition and class are taught 
that, however abandoned may be the lives 
of the Mexicans, they must be religionists. 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

Gradually this condition will change, and 
religion will be, as in more intelligent 
countries, something beyond the mere form 
that here brings the sincere worshippers 
and the criminal in deed and purpose to 
the same altar. But while ignorance shall 
prevail to the extent that it now does in 
this republic, the power of the church will 
be largely through the religious supersti- 
tion of the worshippers, and bad as the 
religion seems, it is the best they are 
capable of accepting. 

Beyond the class that comes with means 
to develop, and intelligence that knows 
how and where to develop, there is nothing 
in Mexico to invite the foreigner. The 
financial and industrial policy of Mexico is 
entirely different from that of the United 
States and the leading countries of the 
world. The Mexican government main- 
tains a silver basis confessedly and avow- 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

edly because Mexican wealth of every kind 
is produced on a silver basis and sold on a 
gold basis. The reason given on every 
hand for maintaining the silver policy is 
that it maintains cheap labor, while the 
products of Mexico command gold prices. 
In other words, the financial and industrial 
policy of Mexico is to benefit the few at 
the cost of the laborer who gives wealth to 
his employer. 

There are many pleasant things in a 
visit to Mexico. You know exactly how to 
dress under the changing conditions of tem- 
perature. You know that you will not need 
an overcoat from nine o'clock in the morn- 
ing until five in the evening, and that you 
will be certain to need one at any other 
time of the twenty-four hours. You know 
that you will not need an umbrella, for 
rain is one of the impossible things at this 
season of the year; but in driving or 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

walking about the city in the middle of the 
day or early afternoon, a sun-shade or a 
covered carriage is quite necessary. You 
can count on bright moonlight, when the 
moon is at all in evidence, and upon sun- 
light throughout the entire day, excepting 
as it may be tempered by the mists of the 
morning. 

Visitors from the North should be care- 
ful about their clothing, and not lay aside 
their winter garments because of the 
scorching midday sun, and those who are 
fond of a good square meal should have 
their own cook and car with them. It 
is, as I have said, a very interesting and 
instructive country for the student, but 
those who come merely for the purpose of 
pleasure would do well not to come at all. 



117 



THE MUSEUM, PAWNSHOP, 
AND THIEVES' MARKET 

City of Mexico, February 15, 1901. 

The Mexican capital is distinguished 
from all other cities in the Western World 
by its multitude of churches and statues. 
You cannot visit any important part of the 
city without observing statues of heroes, 
statesmen, and saints, and generally of 
most artistic execution. 

One of the most conspicuous of the 
statues is that of Charles IV. of Spain. 
It has had rather a stormy career, as in 
the revolutionary periods of Mexico public 
sentiment surged strongly against every- 
thing Spanish, and it was at times in danger 
of utter destruction, but it was finally, by 
general consent, given the place of honor 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

at the beginning of the great causeway- 
leading to Chapultepec, which is largely 
embellished with statues on both sides. 

Another of the grand statues of the city- 
is that of Columbus, the summit of the 
pedestal of which is adorned with figures of 
a number of monks who gave him aid. 
The next grand statue on the causeway is 
that of Cuauhtemoc, nephew of Montezuma 
11. , who strove to maintain the kingdom of 
the Aztecs after the fall of his uncle until 
he was captured by Cortez. The statue 
does justice to his heroic qualities. He 
died under torture for refusing to give in- 
formation of the hidden wealth of the 
Aztec capital, that had been destroyed 
when Cortez re-entered Mexico and estab- 
lished his mastery. 

It would be impossible to give details 
of the many very beautiful statues which 
adorn the city and which represent every 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

phase of Aztec, Spanish, and Mexican life, 
and every historic race of the country that 
has been so often convulsed by bloody 
conflicts. 

One statue that appeals to the warmest 
affections of the Mexican people is that on 
the tomb of Juarez, the Indian President, 
who was deposed by Maximilian and who, 
in turn, executed the Austrian invader. It 
stands in the cemetery of San Fernando, 
connected with one of the old churches 
bearing that name. Over the grave of the 
dust of the President is reared a most 
beautiful Grecian temple, supported by 
exquisite marble columns, and on the tomb 
is a recumbent statue of Juarez, claimed to 
be one of the most finished illustrations of 
sculpture in the world, with his head sup- 
ported by a female figure representing 
Mexican liberty, as Columbia represents 
freedom in the United States. This little 

]20 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

temple and the tomb within it are entirely 
covered with living or artificial flowers, 
which are changed with formal ceremonies 
on every anniversary of his birth. Fresh 
flowers daily grace his grave, placed there 
by the affectionate and grateful Mexican 
people, and the varied beauties of the 
structure, excepting the statue, are always 
entirely hidden by the beautiful interwoven 
immortelles and other floral tributes. 

Mexico is distinguished not only by the 
grandeur of its statues and monuments, 
but by a national library containing two 
hundred thousand volumes, embracing 
many vellum and parchment books, where 
the student of history could revel for 
months ; and the government has its library 
in every department, including its Museum, 
Academy of Fine Arts, and Schools of 
Engineering and of Law, and to these may 
be added a free library of many thousand 

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volumes, that is open every day in the year 
except feast days. 

There is also a National School of Fine 
Arts, embracing many pictures of excep- 
tional value, but the National Museum is 
the place where the interest of the intelli- 
gent visitor mostly centres. There we 
have substantially all that is preserved of 
the history of the Indian people who wrote 
their heroic records in the early and bloody 
history of Mexico. Several large rooms 
are devoted to these works, which have 
been presented to the Museum, as required 
by law, from every State of the republic, 
but the most interesting of all have been 
recently found in this city. No archaeo- 
logical search had been made for them, but 
in later improvements made in the city 
they were discovered in the digging of 
foundations and opening of sewers. It is 
from these recent discoveries, all made 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

within the present century, and most of 
them within the last two-score years, that 
we have the best records of the Aztec 
civilization in the City of Mexico. 

Cortez, as I have previously stated, 
destroyed the homes and temples of the 
conquered Indians, and the monks, who 
closely followed him, studiously sought to 
efface every vestige of Aztec history. They 
were regarded as Pagans, — their temples as 
blasphemous, — and instead of preserving 
the history of the race, as could have been 
done, it is only here and there that statues, 
monoliths, and picture-writings have been 
preserved. The entire inner walls of a 
large room of the Museum are covered with 
specimens of what was evidently the high- 
est art of preservation known to the Aztecs. 
They consist of beautiful pictures on fine 
canvas woven from the maguey plant, and 
the colors seem as fresh to-day as if painted 

123 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

within the present generation. These pic- 
tures tell the story of Indian progress, of 
methods of war, of worship, of sacrifice, 
and of everything pertaining to their ad- 
vancement. 

Among the most curious of the relics is 
an old map of the Aztec capital, Tenoch- 
titlan, on the ruins of which this city was 
founded, that shows the main causeways 
of the former city, which have not been 
disturbed, and exhibits a very high degree 
of art. The one room devoted to the 
statues and monoliths of the Aztecs is a 
study of intense interest. There is the 
sacrificial stone of the Aztec temple, of 
such huge proportions that it escaped de- 
struction mainly because its destruction 
was next to impossible. 

This stone, with the other relics pertain- 
ing to it, gives the bloody side of Aztec 
civilization. It is in circular form, about 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

ten feet in diameter and between four and 
fiYe feet in depth, and its rim is illustrated 
with figures, showing the Aztec chiefs 
dragging their victims to sacrifice. In the 
centre is a basin to receive the blood of the 
victims, with a channel carrying it to the 
edge of the stone. Close by it is a large 
stone basin, into which the hearts of those 
sacrificed were thrown, and there are a 
number of heavy stone yokes by which 
the head of the captive was held securely. 
On this stone scores of thousands of lives 
have been sacrificed. The sacrifice con- 
sisted of the most horrible butchery by 
penetrating the side of the victim with a 
stone knife and cutting out the heart, after 
which the body was given to the multitude, 
as is claimed, to gratify their cannibal 
appetites. This is one of the few relics 
of the Museum that were accidentally 
found more than a century ago when 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

making an excavation for some purpose 
near the cathedral, where the Aztec temple 
had been reared. 

The calendar stone gives unmistakable 
evidence of the computation of time by 
the Aztecs, and if all its varied and ex- 
quisitely carved hieroglyphics could be in- 
terpreted, it would tell a most interesting 
story of the methods of the ancients in 
determining the passing of the seasons. It 
is one of the largest of the Aztec relics, 
and was also resurrected from its Aztec 
tomb near the cathedral. 

There are numerous idols of the Aztecs, 
some of the most hideous and others of the 
most fantastic conception and construction. 
One of the peculiarities of the Aztec art 
is the dominant presence of the serpent. 
The head or form of the serpent is found 
almost everywhere. Some of the most beau- 
tifully finished works of stone present per- 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

fectly coiled snakes, and one of tliem dis- 
tinctly preserves the early theory concern- 
ing the rattlesnake, as it has fourteen 
formed rattles on its tail. 

That they were a sincerely religious 
people is shown by every monument that 
remains of their work. Their bloody 
butcheries on the sacrificial stone were 
inspired by their religious faith. It was 
there that they offered their sacrifices to 
the sun and the other gods they wor- 
shipped, and they imitated the sacrifices 
recorded in the Old Testament, only offer- 
ing human lives instead of the lives of 
animals. 

Those who may assume that this sacri- 
ficial stone and its terribly sanguinary 
history fully warranted the conquest of 
Mexico by the civilization of Spain, need 
only go a few squares from these relics of 
barbarism to see the imposing home of the 
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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

Inquisition that came with Spanish mastery 
and was reared as one of the attributes of 
the Christian faith. Here the Inquisition 
wrote its most bloody and brutal records. 
The little park on which the building 
fronts is finely decorated by a beautiful 
statue of the Indian woman who brought 
to Priest Hidalgo — the father of Mexican 
independence — notice that he had been 
detected and would be murdered, causing 
him to ring his bell for mass in his church 
at Dolores and lead his worshippers from 
their prayers to battle for freedom. He 
was the first martyr to the freedom of 
Mexico, as he was defeated and promptly 
executed. There is now no statue in the 
republic that calls out more patriotic de- 
votion than that of Hidalgo. 

Between the sacrificial stone of the 
Aztecs, with its bloody record of murder 
in the name of religion, and the equally 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

murderous record of the Inquisition, reared 
and maintained under what should have 
been a vastly better civilization, I am in- 
clined to give the greater extenuation to 
the Aztecs, as their sacrifices were not 
wholly voluntary. 

Among the interesting exhibitions in the 
Museum may be found grouped together 
the magnificent carriage of the Empress 
Carlotta, with the state carriage of the 
Emperor and the state carriage of Presi- 
dent Juarez. The carriage of the Em- 
press looks as bright and fresh to-day as 
when the queen of beauty and personal 
beneficence swept along the grand cause- 
way to Chapultepec. Its entire surface is 
heavily gilded with pure gold, as are the 
wheels and every other part of it, and its 
elaborate finishings around the top are of 
heavily mounted silver. It is quite double 
the size of the ordinary carriage, and is cer- 

9 129 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

tainly the most richly decorated and costly 
equipage on the continent. The state car- 
riage of Maximilian is of exquisite manu- 
facture, but of much more quiet elegance, 
and beside it the state carriage of Juarez 
stands in its severe simplicity, to teach the 
difference between the government of an 
emperor and the government of the people. 

The history of poor Carlotta, as she is 
always called, even in Mexico, presents one 
of the most pathetic individual histories of 
any country. Here remains the grand 
palace of Mexican rulers, including her 
husband, with many of its adornments 
of her own conception, and here is her 
equipage of surpassing grandeur to tell 
the story of the fall from the throne of 
an empire to the starless midnight of an 
insane asylum for a period of more than 
a generation. 

One of the most unique and interesting 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

institutions of Mexico is the national 
pawn-shop, situated opposite the great 
cathedral and near the Grand Plaza. It is 
the one establishment in Mexico where you 
can deal with the absolute assurance that 
you will not be cheated. It was instituted 
by the government more than two centuries 
ago. While the individual pawn-shops of 
the city are among the most extortionate 
of like establishments in any country, the 
national pawn-shop is conducted solely in 
the interests of the people. Persons in 
need of money can there pawn any article 
and receive for it one-third to one-half its 
commercial value. It is carefully ap- 
praised, and is held for redemption for a 
period of eight months on the payment of 
a moderate interest. If not redeemed at 
the time specified, it is again appraised at 
from twenty to thirty per cent, below its 
intrinsic value and the price marked 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

on it. There is no deviation from the 
appraised value in the sale, but articles 
which remain unsold for a certain period 
are again appraised at a lower price, and 
this is continued until a sale is effected. 
It is an immense establishment, presenting 
an almost infinite variety of the best 
quality of pawned goods, all of which 
may be bought at a much lower price than 
their commercial value, and many of them 
as low as fifty per cent. Those in charge 
of the establishment have no interest 
whatever in deceiving or cheating the pur- 
chaser, and considering the tricks of trade 
in Mexico, where you are generally ex- 
pected to believe nothing from anybody in 
a business way, the national pawn-shop 
stands out like a clean deuce in a dirty 
deck. 

Of course, the patrons of this establish- 
ment are chiefly persons who have articles 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

of considerable value to pawn, as the pawn- 
shops of the average Mexican are of the 
lowest order, and goods pawned by that 
class are not expected to be redeemed. 

From the national pawn-shop it is but a 
little distance to the very lowest round of 
the ladder in the trade of the criminal 
classes. The thieves' market, a little more 
than a square from the national pawn- 
shop and quite as close to the Grand Plaza, 
presents the criminal classes in all the 
squalor of their poverty and degradation. 
Like all other institutions, from the bull- 
ring and the gambling-house to the brothel, 
the thieves' market is legalized, and the 
uniformed official inspector may be seen at 
every turn of this narrow and sinuous com- 
bination of the basest strata of commerce. 
There are hundreds of persons employed 
in the sale of the endless variety of cheap 
things which are gathered for commerce, 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

and they are all of the lowest type, from 
a rusty spike, broken iron and brass, to 
game roosters, often enlivening the horrible 
spectacle with their shrillest crows. It is 
the worst combination of dirt and squalor, 
alike in narrow passages, in articles for 
sale, and in men and women engaged as 
sellers, to be found in any business channel 
in the city. Here it answers the purposes 
of a "fence shop" in our Northern cities, 
and the goods offered are either bought at 
low rates from thieves who have stolen 
them or are job lots from the clearing sales 
of low pawn-shops. 

In passing through the very narrow and 
constantly winding paths of the thieves' 
market, it is quite necessary to avoid even 
the touch of the persons engaged there, 
and to keep a very close eye upon your 
jewelry and money. The people operating 
there are not authorized by law to purchase 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

stolen goods with impunity, but all know 
that they do it, and no inquiry is made. I 
saw there brass wheel-handles of Pullman 
ear brakes corresponding precisely with 
those which had been stolen from our own 
car. Such an institution could not exist in 
Philadelphia, but Mexico could not get 
along without it. 

There is very much to attract the in- 
terest of the intelligent tourist in Mexico. 
In addition to its grand scenery, its great 
temples, its beautiful and instructive monu- 
ments, its vast sources of study to those 
who are interested in the history of the 
human race, this country presents greater 
advantages for a particular class of Ameri- 
cans than any other in the world. I know 
of no place where a fortune could be so 
easily attained as in Mexico, but there are 
two absolute prerequisites : First, the man 
who seeks fortune in Mexico must have 

135 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

fortune to aid him in his work. It is no 
place for the mechanic or the working- 
man, or any other class of people who are 
without means, unless they are connected 
with organizations or business interests 
which promise advancement. Second, it 
is absolutely necessary that persons seeking 
fortune here should very thoroughly know 
just where and when to make investments. 
In no other country could there be greater 
likelihood of men seeking fortune being 
deceived and misled into bankrupty. The 
few who have had means and succeeded in 
investing them wisely are acquiring wealth 
with great rapidity, not only in the aban- 
doned mines of the republic, but in pos- 
sessing and handling the vast forests of 
most valuable timber and in developing 
the tropical portion of the country. 

Ex-Governor Shepherd, of Washington, 
came here to repair his broken fortune with 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

friends to aid him. He is buried in the 
mountains of Mexico, six days' drive over 
almost impassable roads to any railroad; 
but he had been successful. Mr. West, of 
journalistic distinction in Chicago some 
years ago, is here devoting his time to the 
development of an old mine in the moun- 
tains, that is reached from the railroad by 
ninety miles' travel over a single trail, that 
can be travelled only on horseback. His 
large machinery was carried to the mine 
piecemeal by Indians, but he now has for- 
tune assured. I met also Dr. Cockrell, 
son of Senator Cockrell, of Missouri, who 
has been here nine years, and has achieved 
great success in the growth of sugar, rub- 
ber, coffee, corn, tobacco, etc., in the 
southern part of the republic. He has 
become thoroughly Mexicanized, and is 
realizing very large profits from all his 
crops. 

137 



PRESIDENT DIAZ— THE 

MOUNTAINS AND THEIR 

UNTOLD STORY 

¥ 
City or Mexico, February 12, 1901. 
I HAVE remained in the Mexican capital 
several days beyond my original plans 
with the hope of meeting President Diaz. 
He has been away for more than a fort- 
night, and it was announced on his depart- 
ure that he was not seriously ill, but that 
he needed rest, and he was confidently 
expected back to resume his ofiicial duties 
by the middle of last week. From reliable 
information received, I am apprehensive 
that President Diaz is dangerously ill, and 
that the Mexican press and all the officials 
connected with the government have been 
studiously suppressing the truth as to 
his condition. Announcements have been 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

made in the papers telling how he enjoyed 
the hunt, when in point of fact I have 
every reason to believe that he has not 
been able to hunt at all, and that his 
absence from the capital is likely to be 
prolonged for some weeks. 

In private and well-informed circles here 
there is very grave anxiety as to Presi- 
dent Diaz's condition of health. While it 
is reasonably certain that his death would 
not result in revolutionary outbreaks, it is 
confessed on every hand that the present 
most gratifying conditions and prospects 
for the advancement of the material in- 
terests of Mexico would be very seriously 
blighted by the death of the President. 
Other men have made greater sacrifices 
for the interests of the Mexican people, 
as its history is replete with heroism in 
both church and state and in field and 
forum, but no one man has ever ruled 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

over Mexico so long and so acceptably as 
Porfirio Diaz. 

He first became President in the revolu- 
tionary period of 1876. He entered the 
City of Mexico at the head of the army 
and was proclaimed President, in which 
office he remained until 1880. He was not 
elected to succeed himself, but was again 
chosen in 1884, and he has been re-elected 
in each recurring Presidential year, having 
been unanimously chosen to his present 
term in 1900. Should he live out this 
term he will have a record of twenty years 
as President of Mexico. 

He was one of the bravest and most skil- 
ful of all the Mexican generals, but he has 
proved to the people of Mexico that the 
victories of peace may be more renowned 
than those of war. He understands the 
Mexican people ; he well appreciates their 
needs, and his administration has been 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

steadily progressive in the line of the best 
civilization. Kailroads now traverse almost 
every section of the republic, and with the 
single exception of the line between Mexico 
and Vera Cruz they have all been practi- 
cally of his creation. He is a broad, self- 
poised, aggressive, and patriotic statesman, 
and he has hastened the advancement of 
his nation to an extent in which but few 
others, and probably no others, would 
have been sustained by the public. 

For Mexico to lose President Diaz at 
this time would be not only a national 
but an international calamity, and it would 
be felt by the Mexican people generally as 
a profound bereavement. Many in other 
countries have assumed that he has been 
re-elected President from time to time be- 
cause of his complete military, political, 
and business organizations ; but, while it is 
true that President Diaz gives large sub- 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

sidies from the public treasury to all the 
prominent newspapers of the country, and 
while he has an army whose soldiers police 
every railroad station and every section of 
the republic in which a revolution might 
be inspired, and while he is heartily sup- 
ported by the great railroad and corporate 
interests of Mexico, it is none the less true 
that he has the hearty support of the public 
almost without exception, and his suc- 
cessive elections as President have not 
depended upon any other influences than 
the sincere and hearty trust and affection 
of the Mexican people. 

I profoundly regret my inability to meet 
President Diaz, as I had hoped to learn 
much from him of the progress and grow- 
ing prosperity of this country, that is so 
full of promise under his intelligent gov- 
ernment, but I very much fear that his 
days of active usefulness are well-nigh 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

numbered. I sincerely hope that I am 
mistaken ; for in this, unlike most other 
nations of the world, there is not one man 
who could entirely fill the place of the 
Mexican ruler. 

I took a journey to Orizaba, one hun- 
dred and fifty miles distant in the tropics, 
to view the interesting agricultural develop- 
ment of the plains of Apam, and of the 
beautiful plateau between Apam and the 
mountains at Esperanda. Going out of 
the capital, the Mexican Valley soon pre- 
sents almost one unbroken field of the 
maguey plant. It must be the most profit- 
able growth of the husbandman, or the 
fertile soil of the valley would not be so 
exclusively devoted to it. Here and there 
a green wheat-field would be seen, and a 
larger proportion devoted to corn, but the 
one crop of the Mexican Valley and Apam 
plains is the maguey, or pulque plant. It 

143 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

is cultivated with great care, and in many 
instances I saw it growing vigorously up to 
the very summit of the cliffs which dot 
the valley, some of them being so pre- 
cipitous that it would be impossible to till 
the soil with teams. 

The whole country, from the capital to 
where the descent of the mountains begins 
at Esperanda, is held in immense planta- 
tions, ranging from twenty thousand to one 
hundred thousand acres each. The haci- 
endas, or plantation buildings, are seen here 
and there, often many miles apart, situated 
on some of the undulations which break 
the plain, and all of them present visible 
traces of barbaric grandeur. The home of 
the owner is generally constructed in lavish 
style, with its grounds walled in, as is com- 
mon throughout the entire country, and 
with all conveniences for the comfort of the 
employers and every evidence of discomfort 

144 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

and disregard of the interests of the 
laborer. 

Around the hacienda is usually found a 
number of small huts, most of them vary- 
ing from eight to ten feet in width, and no 
greater in height. These are built of adobe 
or inferior lumber, and are the homes of 
the men who till the soil. They are chiefly 
Indians, who render very poor service and 
get much poorer pay. In several instances 
I saw forty persons working in a field, 
threshing wheat and stacking the straw or 
plowing or planting, and in no instance 
would one-quarter of the number be em- 
ployed in the North to perform the same 
work. 

The wages of farm laborers range from 
twenty-five cents to seventy-five cents per 
day, Mexican money, worth just one-half 
its face value in gold; but the soil is 
wonderfully rich, and even the poorest 

10 145 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

farming produces bountiful crops. The 
chasm between the old slave-owners and 
their slaves in our Southern States was not 
half so wide as the chasm between the 
owner of the soil in Mexico and the igno- 
rant and impoverished labor employed. 

It is this class that is next to an insuper- 
able obstacle to liberal progress in Mexico. 
It is not the fault of the government, nor 
is it the fault of a very large element of 
intelligent and progressive people who are 
engaged here in all the channels of com- 
merce, industry, and trade, but it is simply 
a problem that under present conditions 
absolutely defies solution. The conditions 
steadily grow better, but the growth must 
be slow, and thus will long continue a 
double misfortune to both classes. 

There is nowhere on the continent a 
more beautiful, fruitful, and picturesque 
region than the country from the capital to 

146 



k t 








TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

Orizaba. The railroad starts seven thou- 
sand three hundred and forty-eight feet 
above the sea at Mexico, and these vast 
plains steadily rise from the capital city 
until the summit is reached at Saltepec, 
where the altitude of eight thousand two 
hundred and twenty-seven feet is attained. 
While traversing this attractive region, 
where you see seed-time and harvest almost 
continuously hand in hand, you are sur- 
rounded by the most interesting mountain 
scenery that can be found anywhere on the 
continent. Popocatapetl and Iztaccihuatl 
are constantly in view until the snowy pin- 
nacle of the peak of Orizaba appears in 
the east, towering eighteen thousand two 
hundred and twenty-five feet above the sea, 
and wearing the highest crown of any 
mountain in North America. It is the 
grandest of the many great mountain-cliffs, 
most of which were once volcanic. It has 

147 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

been the finger-board for millions of people 
of the past, who left no history, and is to- 
day the first thing looked for by the mari- 
ner in the Gulf as he sails for Vera Cruz, 
one hundred miles distant. 

At Esperanda the railroad begins the de- 
scent of the wonderful chain of mountains 
that spans the Gulf side of Mexico. It is 
the grandest feat of engineering I have 
ever seen, far surpassing anything in either 
the Rocky Mountains or the Sierras. It is 
thirty miles to Orizaba, which was founded 
by the Aztecs long before the Spanish 
were known in Mexico. Orizaba is sur- 
rounded by immense mountain-clifis on 
every side, many of them only a very few 
miles distant, while the peak of Orizaba 
towers over all. A descent of nearly 
four thousand feet is made in the short 
journey between Esperanda and Orizaba, 
and most of it is made in two-thirds of the 

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TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

distance. The line of the road is presented 
on a little map, giving the schedule of the 
trains, and it is simply a continuation of 
the wildest and most picturesque curves 
ever fashioned by an engineer. 

From the time the mountain descent be- 
gins, the road is almost wholly made up of 
tunnels, every one of which presents a 
sharp curve, and horseshoe bends, which 
follow each other at times in such quick 
succession that the line presents double 
and triple horseshoes, without one hun- 
dred feet of straight line intervening. 
Many portions of it present the most pre- 
cipitous chasms close beside the road-bed, 
and when half-way down the steep decline, 
a beautiful Indian village is seen far be- 
low in a little valley, which seems to be 
cultivated to an unusual degree of perfec- 
tion. Its fields are green, and even up the 
steep declivities of the hills wherever there 

149 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

is soil to invite the rude plows the usually- 
bleak and inhospitable face of the moun- 
tains is relieved by fields which give 
promise of bountiful harvests. 

Even the foot-hills at the base of the 
peak of Orizaba are relieved with green 
patches, apparently half-way up to the 
snow-line, and from the time the pretty 
Indian valley opens up its charming view 
all the way down to Orizaba there is a line 
of Indian farms on the fertile soil. At 
some places the cultivated valley widens 
out for two or three miles and again nar- 
rows to the width of an ordinarv field, but 
it presents an unbroken picture of the 
most comfortable homes I have seen in 
rural Mexico. 

This remarkable road was built by Eng- 
lish capitalists, who came into possession, 
early in the '60s, of the eastern end of the 
line, which had been built out some fifteen 

150 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

miles from Vera Cruz by private capital, 
and later extended to the mountains by 
Marshal Bazaine when he occupied Mex- 
ico in 1862 and made Vera Cruz his base 
of supplies. It was completed and opened 
on the first day of January, 1873, and was 
the first railroad in the Mexican republic. 

It is laid with heavy steel rails, on steel 
ties, and has steel telegraph poles along its 
entire line. The engines used are enor- 
mous in weight, and present two complete 
locomotives in one machine to insure safety 
for the train if one locomotive should be- 
come disabled. It is evidently managed 
with great care, but has never made liberal 
returns to its investors. 

It traverses the same mountain passes 
through which Cortez led his little Spanish 
army nearly four centuries ago, and through 
which Scott led his army from Vera Cruz 
to the City of Mexico, and through which 

15] 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

the French army marched to overthrow 
the republic and establish an empire for 
Maximilian. 

In no other journey of one hundred and 
fifty miles can so much of fertility of soil 
and grandeur of scenery be presented as 
in the journey from the Mexican capital to 
Orizaba. There the climate is tropical, 
although the picturesque little city is 
nearly four thousand feet above the Gulf. 
It is one of the health-resorts of Mexico, 
and tourists from every climate are careful 
to embrace it in their itinerary. In the 
two days I spent there I met travellers 
from most of the principal cities of the 
States, and many from England and 
France. 

Foreign capital has chosen Orizaba as the 
best place for investment in manufacturing, 
and within a few miles of the city there 
are four immense cotton-mills, one of which 

152 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

is the largest ever built at one time in the 
world. The mountain streams furnish 
magnificent water-power, and the cheap 
labor of Mexico enables these mills to com- 
pete successfully with like manufactories 
in every other section. The cotton comes 
entirely from Texas, and the products of 
the mills are exhausted in the home mar- 
kets. They furnish every variety of cot- 
ton fabrics, including prints, and I assume 
that it is but the beginning of manufac- 
tories throughout the republic. 

The country about Orizaba is rich in in- 
teresting studies for the tourist. Here are 
the finest coffee plantations, and all the 
fruits of the tropics abound. You are 
awakened in the morning by the loud, 
beautiful notes of the bugler, tempered by 
the softer tones of the nightingale and the 
varied songs of the mocking-bird. The 
evenings are cool, but the Northern tourist 

153 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

is glad to imitate the natives and take 
shelter from the heat of the day. 

The surroundings of the city are strangely 
picturesque, as some of the cliffs extend 
their foot-hills even into the city limits, and 
looking in any direction there is nothing 
presented to the view but a circle of the 
most confused and rugged mountains. 

I have now been for over two weeks 
traversing the mountains and valleys of 
our own country and of Mexico. At no 
time after leaving Denver — along the en- 
tire journey of nearly one thousand miles 
across the E-ockies and Sierras to the plains 
of the Pacific slope, then down through 
California and our Territories to the E-io 
Grande, followed by a journey of nearly 
fifteen hundred miles in Mexico — can the 
tourist turn in any direction without seeing 
the majestic cliffs, often broken in wild 
confusion, varying in height from the spurs 

154 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

which descend into the valleys to the im- 
mense pyramids of rugged rock which are 
crowned in perpetual snow. 

The observant traveller never tires of 
the varied views presented by these moun- 
tains, as even among those which raise their 
cliffs highest towards heaven are gener- 
ally found the most beautiful and fruitful 
valleys. This vast mountain chain, which 
is almost unbroken from the colossal St. 
Elias in Alaska down through our own 
country and Mexico to the western coast 
of South America, presents not only the 
most imposing and impressive panorama 
of majestic grandeur, but it has sealed in 
its hidden archives, written there countless 
centuries ago, the history of the world and 
its peoples that we are just beginning to 
study. 

Our scientists have made little progress, 
but they are mastering the alphabet of 

155 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

this great study, and the future scientists 
will here jfind boundless fields in which 
to unravel the unwritten history of ages 
and beings of which the world has little 
dreamed. It may be generations, it may 
be centuries, before they master the strange 
stories these mountains and their plains 
will tell. Enough has been learned to 
know that the prehistoric Western World 
is one vast sepulchre of creations and 
civilizations which are now among the 
unknown, and every chain of this vast 
net-work of mountains must sooner or 
later furnish its tribute to the now shad- 
owed history of the past. 

The few lessons we have gathered from 
the long-hidden stores are absolutely un- 
erring. They tell of different ages, con- 
ditions, and climates as surely as the 
astronomer tells of the movements of the 
heavenly bodies in their orbits. We 

156 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

know that in the frozen North there was 
once a tropical climate, as the flowers and 
varied growths of the tropics are there 
preserved in petrifications whose testimony- 
is indisputable. 

We are only beginning to understand 
that on plains where these mountains now 
lift their corrugated crowns, the mastodon 
and colossal animated nature abounded, 
and now and then irresistible evidences 
are found of races of human giants of 
whom even tradition tells no story. To-day 
our most accomplished and cultured scien- 
tists can only guess the conditions before 
the violent throes of the earth cast up in 
convulsive confusion these thousands upon 
thousands of miles of mountains, which now 
would seem to have been co-existent with 
past eternity, and so mighty in their 
foundations and structure as to promise 
co-existence with future eternity. 

157 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

We are steadily, but necessarily very 
slowly, advancing in this almost end- 
less study of the unrecorded history of 
the past ; but the time must come, even 
though centuries may be required to con- 
summate it, when the hidden records of 
these mountains and valleys will be mas- 
tered, and the now unintelligible hiero- 
glyphics of the monoliths and ruins of 
unknown peoples will be brought within 
the range of human understanding. 

It is the great lesson of the future, 
and profoundly as it has impressed me in 
crossing the mountains of my own country 
for nearly one thousand miles, and remem- 
bering the recent discoveries of colossal 
animals whose bones have been slumbering 
for countless ages, I have been even more 
impressed in this tropical climate by the 
unmastered lessons which are here on every 
side, in the ruins of civilizations which are 

158 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

without historic or even traditional record. 
Here are ruins of great cities, displaying 
wonderful advancement, with walls em- 
bellished with frescoing whose beautiful 
and enduring colors are among the lost 
arts even in this intelligent age, and here 
are pyramids which in conception and pur- 
pose rival the pyramids of Egypt's sandy 
plains. 

We know of the Aztecs here as we know 
of the aborigines in the United States. 
There they were simply the dusky sons of 
the forest, without art or temple, although 
they at times reared the rudest altars. 
Here the Indian, as far back as history 
and plausible tradition go, was the equal in 
advancement in many of the arts of any 
of the peoples of their time. But long 
before them the evidences are undoubted 
of the existence of peoples whose art is 
exhibited only in their unmastered sculp- 

159 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

ture and hieroglyphics, and of whose 
civilization the world is to-day entirely 
ignorant. 

Sometime these mountains, valleys, and 
ruins must have their secrets unlocked ; 
their treasures, which have slept in hidden 
archives for untold centuries, must teach 
the more enlightened civilizations of the 
future in what large measure of darkness 
our present boasted age of advancement 
has been groping its way. They will tell 
their story some time, and then the world 
will understand its own history. 

I turn homeward from this beautiful 
panorama of mountain and plain with sin- 
cere regret. The new lessons which are 
presented for study in every day of sight- 
seeing are of unvarying interest, and there 
are many invitations to the most delightful 
enjoyment. 

I have devoted every evening to the 

160 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

beautiful drive from the centre of the 
Mexican capital to the grand cliff and 
palace of ChapulteiDCc. It is delightfully 
shaded by the black ash, mingled at times 
with the sycamore, and towering over all 
is seen the faultless symmetry of the 
eucalyptus, growing with the precision of 
a line of battle, with the beautiful statues, 
telling of every age and people known in 
the history or traditions of Mexico, adding 
to the grandeur of the view. When I 
first reached Nature's rocky battlements 
which embellish the front of Chapultepec 
the setting sun had just passed behind the 
cliffs of the distant mountains, presenting 
a picture through the fleecy clouds that the 
brush of a Titian could not reproduce. 
Turning towards the east, a golden circle of 
the sun threw its halo around the eternal 
snow of Popocatepetl's crown, and away 
beyond it was the moon, with her horns 

11 161 



TO THE PACIFIC AND MEXICO 

rounded out to fulness, clad in silvered 
mellowness. It was a picture of sublimest 
beauty, as the sinking god of day and the 
queen of night proclaimed that another 
day had made its journey to the boundless 
eternity of the past. 



THE END 



162 



AY 27 1901 



